Issue details
Culture and Creative Recovery Fund grant allocations
The Culture and Creative Recovery Fund created
a programme of support for the sector consisting of three streams:
two grant programmes, £200k for Creative Freelancers and
£300k for Creative Businesses, and a £500k support
programme. Demand for the grants was anticipated to be high and
this proved to be the case.
In total 512 applications were received, 214 for business grants
and 298 for creative freelancers. Both streams were significantly
oversubscribed, with approximately £2m of funding sought by
businesses and approaching £1m sought by freelancers. As a
result of this demand, the West of England Combined Authority
Committee agreed on 25 June 2021 to award a further £1m to
the Small Business Resilience Grant Programme and the Culture and
Creative Economy Recovery Fund and to delegate the split of the
funding between these programmes to the Combined Authority Chief
Executive in consultation with the Chief Executives of the
constituent councils. Following a review of both the Small Business
Resilience Grant (funding awards already made) and the Culture and
Creative Economy Recovery Fund (funding awards pending) it was
concluded that the greatest value and impact would be achieved by
directing the additional £1m of funding towards the Culture
and Creative Economy Recovery Fund.
Apportioning the additional £1m across the three workstreams
of the Cultural and Creative Recovery Fund will allow more
supportable applications to be grant funded and to expand the
business support offer. The additional £1m in funding allows
the two grant programmes to increase from a combined £500k to
£1,302,637 and enables a further 106 applicants to be
supported (total grants increasing from 127 to 233). 101 creative
businesses (44% of applicants) are recommended to receive grants to
a value of £927,526 – an increase from the original 21.
132 freelancers (and 44% of applicants) are recommended to receive
grants to a value of £375,111 – an increase from 106.
The business support programme will be expanded to an additional 30
businesses.
The Business and Skills lead officers and Chief Executives of the
West of England constituent councils were consulted on this
proposal and were in agreement with the decision.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 23/07/2021
Decision due: 1 Jul 2021 by Chief Executive, West of England Combined Authority
Contact: Patricia Greer, CEO Email: patricia.greer@westofengland-ca.gov.uk.
Consultation process
The Chief Executives of the West of England
unitary authorities were consulted on these proposals.
Decisions
- 23/07/2021 - Culture and Creative Recovery Fund grant allocations
Background papers