Following today’s publication of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, led by Professor Rebecca Francis CBE, Culture Commons warmly welcomes the UK Government’s commitment to placing arts, culture and creativity at the heart of every child’s education.

This week, we’ve taken our work on cultural devolution right into the heart of government — submitting formal evidence to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s consultation on the new English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill, now moving through the UK Parliament.

A major new report to the UK Government puts New Towns back in the spotlight - key to delivering 1.5 million homes and tackling regional inequalities. Crucially, it makes culture central to their success. That shift could transform how we plan and sustain places in the UK.

At the 2025 Labour Party Conference, the UK Government has announcement £25 million over three years for six mayoral regions - a significant boost for creative industries. Beyond the headline, the question for us at Culture Commons is: how does this investment advance the case for cultural devolution?

On 25 September 2025, the government launched its Pride in Place Strategy as part of the Plan for Change. What began as a pilot is now a flagship national policy - backed with long-term funding and new powers for communities.

The Sutton Trust’s Elitist Britain 2025 report paints a sobering picture of who holds power and influence across UK society. For those working in the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem, the findings underline the urgency of ensuring our fields are genuinely open to all – not just the privileged few.

Our Director Trevor MacFarlane FRSA was hosted in Riga by Latvia’s Minister for Culture, Agnese Lāce for a wide ranging discussion on culture, creativity and heritage.

Culture Commons has been attending a series of high level roundtables hosted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to help support the development of the emergent Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF).

Dr James Hickson (Heseltine Institute) and Dr Jack Newman (University of Bristol) — both contributors to our flagship Future of Cultural Decision Making in the UK programme — have published a new article in The Political Quarterly. The piece digs into how different “justifications” for devolution often pull against each other, leaving ambiguity and frustration in their wake. We consider the potential implications for culture, creativity and heritage.

New Towns Taskforce report drawing on Culture Commons policy cited in an evidence session in a cross-party House of Lords committee.

The UK Government has today published the ‘English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill’ - a game-changing moment for local decision making across England.

Culture Commons’ influential report on Creative Improvement Districts (2022) has been cited by researchers from the University of Manchester and included in a new paper published in City, Culture and Society.

Culture Commons joins the consortium of partners scoping a blueprint for a new National Cultural Data Observatory for the UK.

Launch of a review of the history of devolution and the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem.

Owen Garling and Professor Michael Kenny from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge share insights from their ongoing research project examining 'cultural infrastructure'.

In this guest blog, commissioned as part of Culture Commons’ open policy development programme on devolution and increased local decision making, Kathryn Welch reflects on her experience as Programme Lead for the Culture Collective programme, a powerful network of 26 community-rooted creative projects across Scotland initiated by Creative Scotland.

In this guest blog, David Jubb reflects on his work with Citizen’s in Power, a not for profit founded in March 2023 to promote the value of citizen-led cultural decision making.

Culture Commons publishes a new Insight Paper laying out a variety of perspectives from some of the UK’s largest Grant Giving Bodies shared at a special roundtable as part of a major open policy development programme exploring cultural devolution.

Today we publish a new Discussion Paper by Professor Leila Jancovich (University of Leeds), Dr Lucrezia Gigante (Culture Commons) and Dr Claire Burnill-Maier (Culture Commons) that unpacks some of the main models that have supported people to participate in decision making about the cultural life of their local area.

Culture Commons Director Trevor MacFarlane FRSA attends the launch of ‘Pandemic Culture: The Impact of Covid-19 in the UK Cultural Sector and Implications’ - a book he contributed a chapter to covering the UK's national policy response.