Cultural devolution evidence base published

Over the last nine months, the Culture Commons team has been working closely with leading universities and research institutions across the UK to develop new research exploring devolution and increased local decision making.

Throughout 2024, Culture Commons has been working closely with leading researchers at the Centre for Cultural Value, University of Dundee, University of Kent, University of Leeds, Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, University of Liverpool, Thinks Insight & Strategy and University of Warwick.

Together we have been building an evidence base to support our policy work as part of a major four-nations open policy development programme entitled ‘The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK’ - a national programme we’re leading in a coalition with 30 partners.

We're covering a diverse range of policy areas, including: cultural rights, cultural strategies, cultural democracy, co-operative business models, local and regional government preparedness and pan-regional governance.

Trevor MacFarlane, Director of Culture Commons commented:

"We're very grateful to all our research partners for working with us so closely to build this important new evidence base. We're blessed to have some of the finest researchers in the country working with us on this project. The Culture Commons team is looking forward to reviewing all that evidence to inform the co-design of a robust set of policy positions that we hope will help national, regional and local stakeholders make the most of everything that devolution has to offer in the coming years."

You can read all the research papers and the wider insights we've been gathering here.