Outlook for Welsh culture sector remains ‘challenging’ despite budget boost

Wales’s 2025-26 draft budget has been welcomed as a “step in the right direction” for the nation’s crisis-hit culture sector, but arm's-length bodies say the outlook remains challenging.

The Welsh Government announced last week that it would provide an extra £5m in resource funding and an additional £16m-plus in capital funding for culture, heritage and sport next year.

The budget is still subject to negotiation and will be voted on by members of the Senedd in March 2025.

According to the draft proposals, Museum Wales will receive a £920,000 boost in resource funding and a £900,000 increase in capital funding.

Local culture and sport will get an uplift of £1.2m, while the Arts Council of Wales is to receive a £1.095m boost. The National Library of Wales will get £400,000 more in resource funding and a £1.1m boost in capital funding.

The announcement comes amid a difficult year for the Welsh culture sector after it was hit by significant cuts in the previous budget.

A 10% cut in revenue funding for Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales led to a major restructure at the organisation, along with warnings that the National Museum Cardiff could close due to its deteriorating condition.

Museums, arts and heritage organisations then faced several months of uncertainty due to upheaval in the Welsh Government, including the resignations of the former culture minister Lesley Griffiths and first minister Vaughan Gething.

Following protests from the sector, the government announced that it would put £3.7m towards emergency repairs to the national museum and library in Cardiff, as well as providing the culture, heritage and sport sectors with an additional £5m from its reserves to mitigate the impact of this year's cuts.

Chief executive Jane Richardson told the Senedd’s culture committee last week that Museum Wales is in a “very different place today than we were a year ago” following the 2025-26 budget announcement – but warned that the institution would still face a shortfall due to an increase of around £500,000 in employer National Insurance contributions.

She said the institution had been through “an extraordinarily difficult year, one of the most challenging in the museum’s history”, and added that while the uplift was welcome, “we really needed about £2m as a standstill position so it is a bit of a shortfall”.

Richardson also warned that the government needed to cut bureaucracy and improve its efficiency in providing capital funding, saying she had only just received a grant letter for £1.3m towards emergency repairs at National Museum Cardiff, even though the funding was confirmed by government back in May.

She revealed that the national museum had suffered another crisis in recent weeks with “major flooding” on its ground floor and natural science galleries due to recent storms, and “desperately needed to undertake surveys to understand where the water is coming in”.

Arts Council of Wales chief executive, Dafydd Rhys, said the outlook for the sector remains challenging in spite of the funding boost.

“The slight uplift in funding is a step in the right direction in terms of supporting the Welsh arts sector," said Rhys.

“The outlook and demand for funding remains challenging as many arts organisations face substantial pressures, from the forthcoming increase in the National Insurance rate for employers, to fierce competition for alternative funding and increased running costs.

“We remain committed to nurturing the right environment for the creation of quality arts experiences, and will continue to listen closely to the sector’s concerns so that this year’s funding is directed where it will have the most impact.”