The gradual gentrification of Britain’s creative industries is a matter of record and an all too familiar theme. The alarm has repeatedly been sounded in recent years by senior figures in the arts. In 2022, Mark Rylance memorably questioned a distribution of cultural resources in which England’s most famous public school enjoys the luxury of two theatres, while arts education is relentlessly downgraded in the state sector.
To paraphrase Macbeth, the sound and the fury has yet to signify very much in the way of meaningful change. One recent study found that between 2020 and 2023, working-class representation across the creative industries actually declined from 26% to a paltry 19%. In a country where issues of class and status have become politically volatile – as Sir Keir Starmer rightly diagnosed during his keynote Labour conference speech on Tuesday – this is deeply undesirable from every point of view. Culturally, it means the marginalisation of perspectives that can enrich the national conversation. Economically speaking, a wealth-generating sector is missing out on a talent pool it should be trawling. Politically, the trend reinforces perceptions of the UK as an unhealthily stratified society, where the rhetoric of equal opportunity rings hollow.
