The Conservative Party Election Manifesto pledges to unleash philanthropy for “good causes and cultural institutions” and to “ensure our creative sector tax incentives remain competitive”.
The Tories have published their manifesto on 11th June, in which they promise to “protect our national heritage” through boosting philanthropy. They also pledge to remove funding for worst performing degrees and financing 100,000 apprenticeships instead, which is expected to impact on arts education.
On page 58 of the manifesto, they write:
Protecting our heritage and institutions
The Conservative Party will always protect our national heritage – including statues, monuments and memorials. We will keep our ‘retain and explain’ guidance under review to ensure it supports custodians in the preservation of our national history and heritage. We will continue to support museums and libraries across the country. Government has the power to leverage philanthropy for good causes and cultural institutions. We will work with individuals, businesses, charities and other networks to find opportunities to unleash this even further. We will complete the review of Gift Aid within the next Parliament.
Page 70 is dedicated to Culture and Sport, in which they say:
Supporting our world-leading creative industries
We believe apprenticeships are a key pipeline of talent into our world-leading creative industries. We will work with industry to deliver a dedicated flexible coordination service so that everyone who wants to work in the film, TV, gaming and music sectors can work on live productions whilst benefiting from at least 12 months of secure training.
We will ensure our creative sector tax incentives remain competitive. The UK is now the second most popular place in the world to make films and high-end TV. That’s a direct result of Conservatives taking action: there have been 1 million new jobs since 2010 and the economic value of the creative industries has doubled. We provided an unprecedented £1.57 billion support package during Covid. We will ensure creators are properly protected and remunerated for their work, whilst also making the most of the opportunities of AI and its applications for creativity in the future.
The most controversial element of the manifesto is their commitment to following through with cuts to funding for their idea of “low grade” university degrees and spending that funding to support apprenticeships. This is found on page 27:
Facilitating training and skills at every stage of life
We believe in giving young people the best possible start to their adult lives and going to university is not the only route to success. The Conservatives have prioritised apprenticeships after they were neglected under Labour. Since 2010, we have delivered 5.8 million apprenticeships and have created apprenticeship routes into 70% of occupations, including through degree apprenticeships. We passed new laws requiring children to be taught about technical education opportunities, not just university routes, and have set up 21 Institutes of Technology. We will build on this by creating 100,000 more apprenticeships. in England every year by the end of next Parliament.
We will fund this by changing the law to close university courses in England with the worst outcomes for their students. Courses that have excessive drop-out rates or leave students worse off than had they not gone to university will be prevented from recruiting students by the universities regulator. This will protect students from being missold and the taxpayer from having to pay where the graduate can’t.
