Equity has described today’s Budget as a “damp squib” for the arts, warning that the Government has failed to deliver the meaningful support creative workers urgently need.
The autumn budget delivered today (26 November) by Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves MP detailed increases to the minimum wage, the lifting of child benefit limits and maintaining of certain tax reliefs but offered no long-term plans for public arts funding. This is despite there being constructive engagement with Equity over the course of 2025.
Tax breaks are no substitute for a cohesive plan for public arts funding, which requires reform and meaningful increase to fulfil the Government’s own ambition for the sector.
Paul W Fleming, Equity General Secretary
Responding to the budget, Equity General Secretary, Paul W Fleming, said:
"The Chancellor had the opportunity to deliver structural change through this budget for the performing arts and entertainment industries’ workforce. For all the speculation, it’s a damp squib.
“Rather than set out a long-term plan for public funding of the arts, the Government has opted to maintain tax reliefs, the root cause of creeping precarity in a critical sector for the UK economy.
“Tax breaks are no substitute for a cohesive plan for public arts funding, which requires reform and meaningful increases to fulfil the Government’s own ambition for the sector. Funding must treat the sector as an ecosystem linking local theatre, film and TV production, and giving long-term stability to key national institutions. As a union we’re looking now with even greater expectation to the review of the Arts Council England, and the BBC Charter renewal, to deliver a coherent industrial strategy for our sectors.
“Elsewhere, the commitment to deliver the Employment Rights Bill in full is positive, and needs to be backed with action to force Tory and Liberal Democrat peers to pass this flagship manifesto commitment. Whilst increases in the ‘living’ and minimum wage are positive, they cannot be a substitute for stronger trades unions, and empowered working people.
"'And while the scrapping of the two-child benefit limit is welcome, the social security system needs further reform. The irrational and punitive continuation of the ‘Minimum Income Floor’ mechanism to calculate Universal Credit payments for freelancers continues to push the less privileged out of creative careers, and speaks to a lack of ambition to deliver a compassionate social security system fit for the 21st century.
“We’ve recognised a shift in constructive engagement with the union over the course of 2025, but with another key moment failing to advance the cause of good work for all artists, or good art for all workers, there is more pressure than ever on this Labour government to deliver equity to all people.”
