Court gives green light to judicial review challenge over refusal of Cultural Recovery Funding

The Get Real Marketing Company has been granted permission to apply for judicial review over the Arts Council’s refusal to provide it with Cultural Recovery Funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Arts Council was instructed to distribute the £1.57 billion funding by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sports in order to help cultural organisations to survive the consequences of the pandemic.

Keystone Law, which is advising the claimant, said the Arts Council had refused to allocate funding to Get Real Marketing because the Culture Recovery Board was not satisfied that the company had exhausted all other sources of potential funding.

“This is believed to be the first judicial review challenging the inconsistencies with allocating the grants,” the law firm said.

Get Real Marketing creates and curates events, operates venue space and facilitates opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people to connect per annum. It also supports the Arts Council’s Let’s Create goal of lifelong expression and creativity.

Lawrence Abramson of Keystone Law said: “It is never easy to overturn an initial refusal to grant permission to apply for judicial review on paper. This represents an excellent result for a client who finds itself in difficult financial circumstances through no fault of its own.

“Hopefully the Culture Recovery Board will now take on board the criticism of its process by the Judge and review its position before the matter goes to a full hearing.”

Sam Karim QC and Ifsa Mahmood of Kings Chambers have been instructed by Abramson to represent Get Real Marketing