Creative Scotland has welcomed the Scottish Government’s announcement that the £6.6m reduction in funding proposed in its draft budget, in December last year, is to be reinstated in the 2023/24 Budget.

The move will restore the organisation’s Grant-in-Aid budget to £63m, and its board is now considering what the change means for the funding it will provide in the year ahead.

The Scottish Government’s U-turn on the proposed 10% cut in funding for the agency follows warnings that such a move would have led to 8,500 job losses. A nationwide campaign to reverse the suggested cut won the support of more than 15,000 people.

Creative Scotland chair Robert Wilson said, “Alongside the board and staff, I am very pleased to see this announcement about the Scottish Government’s budget. It follows a great deal of work from Creative Scotland in setting out the impact and implications of the proposed budget reduction, and the enormously valuable advocacy work from people and organisations across Scotland’s culture sector and beyond. The Board will now consider what this means for our budget and our funding in 2023/24 and we will announce more on this as soon as possible.”