The Stage

Multi-million pound lottery boon for UK cities

Published Thursday 29 July 2004 at 12:15 by Jeremy Austin

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Newcastle with Gateshead are among the million pound winners in the Millennium Commission and Arts Council England’s joint £19.5 million urban culture giveaway.

National Lottery money has been awarded to support cultural programmes across 19 areas of the UK. It is being provided through the Urban Cultural Programme, a partnership between the two bodies that builds on the successful European Capital of Culture 2008 competition, which was eventually won by Liverpool.

Chair of the Millennium Commission and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell said: “The European City of Culture competition stimulated the creation of a wonderful range of creative and ambitious plans in cities across the UK. The lottery funded Urban Cultural Programme will mean that many of those aspirations can become reality.”

Applications from consortia were invited to bid for funding through the programme in March. Each consortium had to include a local authority with a population of at least 120,000 - 105,000 in Northern Ireland. Successful applicants received up to 50% of the total costs of their programmes with the rest being secured from other sources.

Birmingham received £2.1 million, Bristol £1.5 million, Cardiff £1.3 million, Liverpool £1.2 million and Newcastle and Gateshead £2.7 million. In Northern Ireland, Belfast was awarded £1.3 million. A joint bid by Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, York and Hull netted £1.7 million.

ACE chairman Sir Christopher Frayling added: “The arts council has invested in the regeneration of many towns and cities in England and we know that culture-led regeneration enriches lives and raises aspirations. The search for the Capital of Culture 2008 created an extraordinary momentum and I am delighted that through this programme we can continue to build on that legacy which will benefit communities across the country for generations to come.”