Governments don’t just underestimate culture, media and sport, they depend on them, while systematically failing to sustain them.

In the UK, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport stands as a formal acknowledgement that these sectors matter. In practice, it has become a symbol of something else: a gap between rhetoric and reality that has gone unchallenged for too long.

That gap is indefensible. The creative industries contribute £145.8bn to the economy, around 5.5% of GDP and the wider DCMS sectors account for close to a tenth of all economic output. They employ millions, grow faster than the wider economy, and project British influence globally. By any serious economic measure, they should be central to national strategy.

Instead, they are treated as optional.

This isn’t just a matter of perception; it is built into the system. At local level, most spending on arts, culture and sport is not protected. Councils are not required to fund it. When budgets come under pressure, as they have year after year, these areas are cut first. Libraries close. Youth services disappear. Community sport collapses. What is lost is not just access, but opportunity and once gone, it rarely returns.

This is not inevitable. It is the result of political design.

Nationally, the imbalance is just as stark. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport operates with a fraction of the budget of departments such as the National Health Service or the Ministry of Defence, despite overseeing sectors that generate a significant share of UK growth. This is not about affordability. It is about priority and a persistent failure to align investment with economic reality.

And yet, when success comes, the tone changes. Medal tables are celebrated. British film, music and media are held up as proof of national strength. Major events trigger sudden bursts of funding and attention. Culture and sport become tools of soft power until the moment passes, and they are once again left to fend for themselves.

This cycle is not just hypocritical. It is economically reckless.

Because these sectors do not exist in isolation. They drive tourism, shape how the UK is seen globally and underpin everything from design to digital innovation. They make cities investable and places liveable. Undermining them weakens far more than the industries themselves; it erodes the conditions that growth depends on.

So, the question is no longer whether arts, culture, media and sport matter. The question is why policy continues to treat them as if they don’t. Part of the answer is political convenience.
These sectors are visible, but not always organised. Influential, but not always unified. And at times, uncomfortable. Independent media scrutinises power, artists challenge it, and culture creates spaces that cannot easily be controlled. Neglect is easier than engagement. But that only continues if it goes unchallenged.

Because the problem is deeper than this. Failure on this issue is bipartisan. Until all major political parties commit clearly and publicly to treating these sectors as economic infrastructure, nothing will fundamentally change. Not funding. Not stability. Not outcomes. The argument must now move from recognition to commitment.

If the UK is serious about growth, three things should follow.

First, baseline protection. Core local provision for arts, culture and sport should be treated as essential infrastructure, not discretionary spending. Without that, access will continue to shrink, and inequality will widen.

Second, long-term investment. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport must be funded in line with the economic value of the sectors it represents, not as an afterthought within political parties.

Third, political accountability. Every major party should be required to set out a clear, costed strategy for these sectors, one that recognises their role in growth, jobs and global competitiveness.

These are not radical demands. They are the minimum required to match policy with reality. What is radical is continuing as we are. Celebrating success while dismantling the systems that make it possible.

The UK has a genuine competitive advantage in arts, culture, media and sport. Few countries combine that level of creative output with global reach. Squandering that advantage is not caution. It is failure. And it is a choice.

The next government, whatever its political colour, will face the same test. It can continue to treat these sectors as optional, or it can recognise them for what they are: foundational to the country’s economic and cultural future.

What it cannot do any longer is pretend the contradiction does not exist.

* Jean-François Burford was Chair of the Kensington and Chelsea Liberal Democrats (2022–2025) and former Councillor for Kew Ward in Richmond upon Thames across two separate terms (2010–2014 and 2018–2022).