Cornwall’s bid to become City of Culture 2025 has been highlighted to two Cabinet Ministers during recent visits to Cornwall.
COP26 President and Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Alok Sharma, and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwateng, were briefed on the bid during recent visits to Cornwall.
Kwateng was touring Spaceport Cornwall and some of Cornwall’s lithium extraction sites to learn more about Cornwall’s role in driving the UK’s green industrial revolution. Meanwhile, Sharma was in Falmouth learning more about Cornwall’s climate change initiatives including offshore renewable energy and seagrass wilding.
Cornwall is one of eight areas of the UK in the running for the year-long City of Culture 2025 title.
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is leading Cornwall’s City of Culture 2025 bid and is backing it with a £1 million investment in Cornwall’s cultural and creative industries.
LEP Chair Mark Duddridge said: “Given our bid’s focus on sustainability and the transition to a low carbon economy, we took the opportunity to brief both Cabinet Ministers on why Cornwall deserves and needs to win City of Culture status, and the transformative effect it would have in helping to level up our economy with other parts of the UK.”
Truro and Falmouth MP Cherilyn Mackrory hosted Sharma during his visit to Falmouth, which included a presentation from the LEP about the City of Culture bid, and she presented him with a summary bid document.
She said: “Winning City of Culture would showcase Cornwall’s creativity on a global stage while bringing our communities together, attracting investment and creating jobs. That’s why it is backed by MPs across Cornwall and the wider south west and I’m delighted we were able to outline our ambitions to the Minister.”
An economic impact study suggests that winning City of Culture status would generate £119 million of direct benefit to Cornwall’s economy and create almost 500 jobs, while continuing to grow Cornwall’s flourishing creative industries sector. The long-term economic benefits could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
City of Culture is a competition run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport every four years. The rules were changed this year to allow rural areas to enter. A shortlist of four UK areas still in the running for the title will be revealed later this month, and the winner announced in May.
