Why the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is facing an existential threat

It's a virtuous circle. International touring enhances our reputation, which attracts world-class musicians to work with us, which enables us to win commercial recording contracts, which in turn supports our ability to maintain a full-time, salaried orchestra and support our vital community work.

Yet back of house at the RSNO, the picture is paradoxical. Despite reaching 137,000 people in Scotland last season and generating £13 million in income, we face an existential question: how much longer can we sustain a full-time, professional national orchestra on current funding?

READ MORE: Royal Scottish National Orchestra makes £14m claim as costs soar

Rising costs

In cash terms, our government grant remains at 2009 levels – a 30 per cent real-terms cut. Meanwhile, costs rise relentlessly, including the recent National Insurance increase. And bear in mind that, since 2018-19, we have increased our income by 50 per cent yet the financial challenge remains. The arithmetic is unsustainable.

The impact extends well beyond our concert halls. As Scotland's only national orchestra with full-time employed musicians, we sit within an interconnected cultural infrastructure where institutions depend upon one another's stability.

READ MORE: 'Existential questions' over future of Scottish national orchestra amid funding crisis

For example, the magnificent Usher Hall can only host the Edinburgh International Festival because orchestras and other artists use the venue throughout the year, maintaining the technical expertise, staffing, and operational capacity that makes August's international showcase possible.

And all the opportunities that are now presenting themselves to do more on health and wellbeing require resources and income but we have to do more and more of this important work with the same amount of funding that we had in 2009.

Hollywood soundtracks

Collaboration strengthens the entire cultural ecosystem, creating connections between organisations that build Scotland's reputation as a centre of cultural excellence. Our permanent ensemble of musicians underpins not only our own work but the broader ecosystem of recording, education, and performance across Scotland.

According to a report by Biggar Economics, the RSNO generated £17.3m in gross value-added last year, supporting over 300 direct jobs and 500 freelance roles. Our Glasgow recording studio produces soundtracks for Hollywood productions – work that comes here because we offer world-class musicians on permanent contracts.

Yet that competitive advantage disappears if we cannot match salaries offered in Manchester, Birmingham or elsewhere in Europe. The same economic analysis suggests that every pound of Scottish Government grant generates £6.90 in return when wellbeing benefits are included.

Not ‘cultural begging’

When budgets tighten, the arts become an easy target – dismissed as discretionary spending, a luxury for prosperous times. This fundamentally misunderstands their role.

This isn’t cultural begging. Our donors and supporters increasingly recognise what policymakers sometimes miss: that funding culture represents investment with tangible returns. They understand that supporting national cultural institutions delivers jobs, attracts international talent, generates export income, and provides a competitive advantage in creative industries.

This perspective – viewing cultural funding as a strategic, economic and social policy rather than charitable giving – reflects evolved thinking about how nations build sustainable prosperity.

As the Scottish Government’s Budget looms, we hope that they understand culture supports Scotland's infrastructure in ways both visible and hidden. It attracts business investment, supports tourism, enhances education, and contributes to public health.

Cities and nations that grasp this – from Copenhagen to Cologne – reap dividends and it is no accident that Germany's economy, Europe's largest, significantly invests in culture. Despite all the evidence of the positive social and economic benefit, the UK still sits close to the bottom of the league table of European cultural spending as a percentage of GDP.

Only Greece spends less on cultural services than the UK. The Scottish Government’s commitment to increase cultural spend by £100 million is extremely welcome and will bring Scotland a step closer to the European average.

Finding creative solutions

I accept that cultural institutions need to challenge themselves as to why they have failed to convince decision makers to raise investment in culture when the economic evidence for investment is so strong. We must better understand our economic impact and learn to articulate it as persuasively as we do the social and community benefits of our work.

As well as asking for more, we must also commit to finding creative solutions for leveraging additional funds from the core support that comes through government sources.

The recently published Arts Council England review, for example, suggests a £250m pot to match-fund endowment giving. Endowment funds have for over a century been at the heart of cultural funding in the US and are key to American cultural bodies thriving with very limited public subsidy. They can provide stability and certainty when funds from other sources become unreliable.

Without a significant change to the UK taxation system, we will need clear financial incentives to encourage the growth of endowment funds. It is encouraging to see how the London Symphony Orchestra’s endowment fund has grown significantly by leveraging support from Arts Council England’s Endowment Catalyst Fund. Scotland requires similar initiatives – not as an aspiration, but as essential infrastructure for our cultural future.

As one of Scotland's five National Performing Companies, we understand the competing fiscal pressures. But other nations treat cultural funding as essential investment, not a cost centre to be cut when times are difficult. The evidence suggests they may be right – the only question is whether policymakers will heed it before the damage becomes irreversible.

Alistair Mackie is chief executive of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra