In 2023/24, net UK government expenditure on library services was £694.2 million a 30% decrease in real terms on the figure in 2014/15 (£990million). Furthermore, a September 2024 BBC report found that over 180 UK public libraries closed or were handed to volunteers since 2016 and 950 – or a third – of libraries reduced their service hours since 2016, with around 2,000 jobs cut and the most deprived areas four times more likely to lose a library than the richest. Meanwhile, government data on library usage indicates that in 2023/24 30% of adults engaged with libraries at least once in the last 12 months, a 4% increase from 2022/23 (26%). According to a Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy survey, physical visits increased by 13.5%, from 2,114 per 1,000 people in 2022/23 to 2,400 per 1,000 people in 2023/24, and web visits rose by 36.9%, from 1,760.1 per 1,000 people in 2022/23 to 2,410.5 per 1,000 people in 2023/24.

In February 2025, as part of the Arts Everywhere package, the government announced a fourth round of the Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) for 2025/26. The package offers a total fund of £5.5 million, from which libraries run by local authorities in England can apply for funding of between £50,000 and £500,000. The funding can be used for a range of projects “to upgrade buildings and technology so they are better placed to respond to the changing ways people are using them”. As with previous rounds, the funding will be distributed by Arts Council England. Meanwhile, the National Year of Reading 2026 campaign has been established by the National Literacy Trust and the Department for Education to bring together partners, including libraries, to recognise the crucial role of reading in boosting individual wellbeing and connecting diverse communities, with the aims of inspiring community reading champions and build a culture where ‘reading is for everyone, everywhere’.

In July, 2025, Libraries Connected responded to Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government, Angela Rayner’s announcement of a review of local councils’ statutory duties by calling on her to protect the right to a quality local library service and underlining the key role public libraries have to play “in delivering the government’s ambitions on digital inclusion, early years, health and neighbourhoods”. The Fabrian Society, meanwhile, in its September 2024 report, Arts For Us All, propose that everyone in Britain should be issued with a “universal library card” and call for the government to remove the “class ceiling” by democratising access to the arts and ensure culture is a prominent feature of its “decade of economic renewal”.

This symposium aims to offer stakeholders – including policymakers, local authorities, librarians, and reading and literacy charities – an opportunity to examine the current state of local libraries in the UK, and develop strategies to transform libraries into cultural hubs and engines of social mobility and cohesion at the heart of local communities.

Programme

Kind regards,

Conference Team
Public Policy Exchange
Tel: 020 3137 8630
Fax: 020 3137 1459