House of Lords debate on national arts bank

Lord John of Southwark tabled a debate on Thursday 4 June about the need for and benefits of favourable loans for arts organisations.

Theatres Trust was pleased to provide our insight on the challenges faced by theatres in advance of today’s House of Lords debate on what was described as ‘the capital crisis facing the country’s infrastructure’.

Joshua McTaggart, CEO of Theatres Trust says “We support Lord John of Southwark’s call to establish a national arts bank to offer favourable capital loans for theatres. We agree that access to loan finance, from public and private sources, is a key opportunity to support theatres of varying scales to secure their future operations and unlock further funding and investment. However, coupled with national arts bank, theatres need to have access to sound financial advice that would enable them to confidently take a loan as part of their business models.”

Image credit: Backstage at The Old Vic, by Philip Vile. The Old Vic benefitted from an innovative seed funding loan from Lambeth Council.