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It is essential to invest to sustain and further develop the region's cultural, environmental and creative asset base, in order to preserve its distinctive identity, promote its competitive advantage in world markets, and preserve its quality of life for future generations. Actions should include supporting active yet sensitive management of the landscape and built environment, investing in cultural infrastructure and developing a sustainable visitor economy.
Regional Economic Strategy, October 2006
Culture lies at the heart of successful places, successful economies, successful communities. It gives people opportunities to learn skills, to express their identities, and to share experiences. It gives them a sense of community and a stake in the places where they live. Places which are seen as having a strong cultural identity – London, Glasgow, Manchester, for example – are also seen as successful and attractive to the skilled and enterprising as places to live in, work in, visit, and invest in.
These issues were addressed by the South East England Regional Assembly's Select Committee on Culture and Regeneration, which reported in March 2003. Among the pieces of evidence which the Select Committee drew on was an Economic Impact Study for Creative and Cultural Industries in South East England, jointly published by the SEEDA and the South East England Cultural Consortium in July 2002.
The Select Committee commented that it is vital that cultural projects are not marginalised because their outputs are more difficult to demonstrate, and recommended that SEEDA should develop common assessment, evaluation and monitoring processes with the cultural agencies that capture the 'soft' as well as the 'hard' benefits of interventions.
In reply, SEEDA undertook to aim to improve the evidence base for bringing the cultural dividend into play when decisions are taken. This would build a better understanding of how cultural activity feeds into industry supply chains, create a better climate for inward investment, and increase the attraction of the region to skilled and enterprising individuals and their families. SEEDA would also seek to establish a model, together with the cultural agencies, for assessing the value of cultural inputs to projects and strategies for regeneration, social inclusion, and other objectives, and the way in which the cultural dimension of these activities contributes to the social and economic benefits achieved.
The recently published Regional Economic Strategy for South East England, 2006-2016, is built around three objectives, Global Competitiveness – investing in success, Smart Growth – lifting underperformance, and Sustainable Prosperity – supporting quality of life. Culture is seen as a cross-cutting theme, with the goal of promoting culture as an economic catalyst in developing underperforming areas and growth poles in all economic areas of the South East, including Growth Areas, the Coastal Towns, and the Diamonds for Investment and Growth. Within these areas, culture is seen as contributing to actions addressing the themes of Enterprise, Innovation and Creativity, Skills, Competition and Business Regulation, Transport and Physical Development, Employment, and Sustainable Prosperity.
The culture team at SEEDA work closely with Culture South East, the cultural consortium for the South East, on a number of strategic priorities and bilaterally with individual cultural agencies on strategic issues and specific projects.
SEEDA's cultural priorities for 2007-08 are:
- Strategic Partnerships
- Evidence Base & Research
- Sports and Cultural Events Strategy
 Valuing Culture in South East
Regional Development Agencies are charged with improving regional economic performance and
identifying strategies for achieving that aim. In the context of this paper SEEDA's question must
therefore be: how can culture contribute to improving regional economic performance?
Culture Counts
 The South East has an abundance of cultural assets and opportunities to participate which are key to the competitiveness of the region and to the quality of life for people who live here. These assets range from the people themselves, creativity, heritage, and natural resources (four out of the UK’s five most wooded counties are in the South East). Collectively these all provide us with a sense of place which attracts creative people and innovative employers. We must ensure that culture helps to build successful communities, encourages entrepreneurial spirit, contributes to the regeneration process and creates a sense of identity and pride.
The SEEDA Culture Team Contacts can be found here.
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