Scottish Labour pledges £30m to top up artists’ income to a living wage
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<p>Anas Sarwar says scheme would be part of overhaul of arts funding in Scotland</p><p>Labour has pledged to spend £30m on giving Scottish artists and musicians a living wage, mirroring a similar scheme in Ireland guaranteeing artists a basic income.</p><p>Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the scheme would be part of a deeper shake-up of cultural funding in Scotland by integrating arts and culture into the Scottish government’s economic strategies if his
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Scottish Labour pledges £30m to top up artists’ income to a living wage Anas Sarwar says scheme would be part of overhaul of arts funding in Scotland Labour has pledged to spend £30m on giving Scottish artists and musicians a living wage, mirroring a similar scheme in Ireland guaranteeing artists a basic income. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the scheme would be part of a deeper shake-up of cultural funding in Scotland by integrating arts and culture into the Scottish government’s economic strategies if his party won power in next month’s Holyrood election. The scheme would start with a pilot project to top up the incomes of up to 1,000 artists, musicians and designers to make sure they made a living wage, provided they had proof of other earnings or income. Costing £30m over two years, Sarwar said it was similar to Ireland’s basic income for 2,000 artists, who were given €325 (£283) a week in three-year cycles. The pilot scheme, which recouped more than its net cost of €72m through increases in arts-related expenditure, productivity gains and reduced reliance on other welfare payments, was made permanent in February . Labour’s proposal is intended to support an annual income of about £14,000 a year. Artists unions such as Equity have been pressing for a Scottish scheme in the run-up to the Scottish elections next month. Sarwar said Labour would overhaul Creative Scotland , the government’s arts agency, and make arts and cultural organisations eligible for Scottish Enterprise and national investment bank funding. “The most important thing is are you getting value for money and are you maximising the outcomes for every pound that you spend?” he said. “I don’t think we are right now in Scotland. “We’re going make sure we deliver an effective budget where every pound is spent wisely rather than layer after layer of bureaucracy, quango after quango. We are going to take responsibility, accountability and spend it in a different way.” The announcement foll...
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