Rishi Sunak will announce that the Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which will be held in 2022, will receive a sizeable funding from the government in an attempt to help attract new inward business and investment.
This Wednesday I will be presenting the Spending Review but what is it and how is it different to a budget?
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) November 23, 2020
Watch our explainer below to learn more 👇 #SR20 pic.twitter.com/xVYPCzZSk6
However, at the backdrop of the growing expenditure on the Covid-stricken national health system and the government furlough system, a million-pound investment in a celebratory extravaganza may raise eyebrows.
The overall sum for the “Brexit Festival” has been set at 120 million pounds. The post-coronavirus Britain also plans to mark other celebrations in 2022, such as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (£5 million) and the Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Birmingham (£118m).
Dubbed “The Brexit Festival” after being launched by Theresa May amidst the hype of the Brexit drama in 2018, the event promises to “deliver an exciting programme of events on arts, culture, design and tech across the country,” according to the government.
It will be produced by Martin Green, who in the past was in charge of the Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Green said he was proud “to be working on the project to showcase and celebrate the cultural dynamism and distinctiveness of the UK.”
The idea behind the festivities, as voiced in 2019 by then Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan, was to showcase Britain’s “creativity and innovation”, which will “help attract new inward business and investment.”
Ahead of the Spending Review on 25 November, the government announced its intention to prioritise the response to Covid-19 in its funding of NHS and schools’ resource settlements.
Rishi Sunak stressed that long term investment in the UK's future was the right thing to do, especially in areas like the NHS, schools and infrastructure.
"We’ll make sure these areas crucial to our economic recovery have their budgets set for further years so they can plan and help us Build Back Better,” he added.
