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Arts, culture and the creative industries continue to feature prominently in the 2015 General Election campaign.  With a week to polling day, we’ve summarised the culture announcements that followed the publication of the parties’ manifestos.

You can also read our previous summary of party manifestos: what they mean for arts, culture and creativity that we published in April.

The Liberal Democrats launched The Power of Creativity, their strategy for culture and the creative industries, at the Roundhouse. They would maintain existing creative tax reliefs, require Local Authorities to publish per head spend on the arts, support the transfer of libraries to their communities and back the Paying Artists campaign.

There’s detail on their manifesto pledge to arts and health and a reiterated commitment to free museums and galleries. The strategy outlines their plans for creative education, including the introduction of a minimum curriculum entitlement. The rest of the strategy focuses on the creative industries, with policies on fiscal devolution, intellectual property, diversity, apprenticeships and the media.

Labour published their Charter for Culture and the Creative Industries which reiterates theirmanifesto pledges and makes a number of new commitments, for example maintaining creative tax reliefs and increasing the diversity of Government arts appointments. It also expands on their commitment to creative education and promises careers advice on the arts and creative industries.

Their wider pledges on unpaid internships and a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee are applied to the creative industries and there are polices on tourism, intellectual property, the media, heritage and broadband.

The Conservative Party haven’t made any further announcements on the arts. In their manifesto, they committed to maintaining free access to museums and galleries and supporting plans for the Factory, an India Gallery at Manchester Museum, a Great Exhibition in the North and a new concert hall in London. They also promised to maintain and potentially extend creative tax reliefs and deliver free Wi-Fi and support for e-books in libraries.

UKIP have continued their focus on ‘British culture’, and devoted two sections in their manifesto to policies around arts and culture, one on ‘British Culture’ and the other on ‘Heritage and Tourism’.  

The Greens haven’t made any further arts commitments. They were the only party to commit to increasing arts funding in their manifesto and also promised to reduce VAT to 5% for live performances, give local authorities powers to support live performances in the arts with local funding and support initiatives to make culture available to all. 

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Read our summary of party manifestos: what they mean for arts, culture and creativity