Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union, reports that Birmingham City Council is going to reduce its grants to Birmingham arts and cultural organisations up to 50% this year and cut them completely next year. This will severely impact our local communities, particularly in the West Midlands, but also spreading across the country.


This particularly is detrimental to young people, especially those aspiring to enter the arts industry, who due to these cuts in grants will no longer have accessible spaces to pursue their love for the arts. This will reduce opportunities to gain experience and achieve their goals and dreams, depleting the industry of valuable talent.

One acting student from Birmingham, Kayden Caffrey states “I feel I don’t have a future in the arts in Birmingham due to the budget cuts,” an emotion that many arts students share as they begin to feel increasingly more abandoned by their home city.

Not only does this affect aspiring students, but it also affects everyone in the wider communities. As budget cuts increase and the arts loses even more funding, iconic institutions across Birmingham may begin to suffer, increasing prices of accessing entertainment and decreasing the spaces in which you are able to do so. This leaves working-class communities more vulnerable to the impacts of an unenriched and under-diverse entertainment industry, further impacting their culture.

This will strip away an iconic part of England’s rich culture as a highly artistic country, but it may also lead to an increase in job losses in the industry as local institutions sell their properties due to difficulties keeping them running without Government Grants. This overall will increase unemployment in England, but also negatively impact the economy. The Arts Council of England states that the arts contribute £10.8billion a year to the UK economy, highlighting its high importance.

Overall, the increase in arts cuts in England are gradually stripping away iconic art institutions and negatively affecting students’ opportunities, the local communities diverse and rich culture, and potentially the UK’s economy, highlighting the dire need for change before it is too late.