COVENTRY North West MP Taiwo Owatemi has called for better government oversight to avoid a repeat of the ‘shameful failures’ of the city’s year as city of culture.
But the Parliamentary Undersecretary for Sport and Minister for Equalities, Stewart Andrew, assured Ms Owatemi lessons would be learnt from the mistakes that led to the Coventry City of Culture Trust going into administration.
Ms Owatemi was speaking in the House of Commons yesterday in a Parliamentary adjournment debate regarding support provided by the government to the Trust.
The debate follows the announcement from the national audit office (NAO) that it would be investigating central government funding and oversight of the City of Culture Trust.
Ms Owatemi said: “Millions of pounds of public money may never be recovered and the plans for the ongoing legacy are having to be rewritten from scratch.
“This isn’t to say the city of culture celebrations themselves were a mistake.
“The year-long pageant of art, music, drama and poetry enthused our community and drew visitors from all over Britain.
“With that said lessons must be learnt. Future cities of culture including Bradford in 2025 should not have to face the financial and reputational losses Coventry has.”
Ms Owatemi added local talent, advice and involvement in the year were ignored by the Trust leaving local communities feeling left without a voice.
“In total, administrators have revealed the city of culture trust will leave behind a more than £4million black hole in its wake.
“Coventry was promised a programme to enlighten, educate and entertain our city, what we received was a leadership without any interest in local people and incompetent money management with dire consequences.”
She also called on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to keep a much closer eye on the finances of any arms-length body tasked with implementing future city of culture programmes.
When asked by Ms Owatemi if the government would commit to holding a full investigation into the trust, Mr Andrew said it would consider the NAOs report and will apply lessons learnt from that.
He added: “We are continuing to engage with the national audit office as they progress their review and the charity commission has also opened a case which is examining the governance of the trust we will continue to look at.
“The administrators’ report states that Covid had adversely impacted the trusts finances.
“Nevertheless, we are keen to learn our own lessons from the past.”
Mr Andrew added Coventry’s city of culture year had brought many benefits, including attracting over £170million of investment facilitating regeneration across the city valued at over £500million.
He also said the programme took place in every ward, with just under two-thirds of the programme co-created with local residents.
