The Guardian view on the class crisis in the arts: the UK's culture must not become the preserve of the elite | Editorial

Class Ceiling, a review co-chaired by Nazir Afzal, urges class to become a legally protected characteristic to tackle a class crisis across the UK arts. Studies show working-class representation among actors, musicians and writers has halved since the 1970s, and under one in ten arts workers had working-class roots in 2024. Top-selling musicians are six times more likely, and Bafta-nominated actors five times more likely, to have attended private schools. Guardian analysis found 30% of artistic directors and creative leaders were privately educated. Historical data indicate nearly half of opera singers came from working-class backgrounds before 1960, a figure that has since collapsed, and many artists now require private income to participate.

"A socioeconomic duty on public bodies was included in 2010's Equality Act, but has never been enacted. Now Class Ceiling, a review from Manchester University, co-chaired by the former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, is calling for change. It wants class to be made a legally protected characteristic like race and sex (and several others), to address the class crisis in the arts not just in the north-west but across the UK."

"The report tells a depressingly familiar story. A 2022 study showed that the proportion of working-class actors, musicians and writers has halved since the 1970s; another in 2024 found that fewer than one in 10 arts workers in the UK had working-class roots. Top-selling musicians are six times more likely than other people to have attended private schools, and Bafta-nominated actors five times more likely to have done so."

"Before 1960, according to one study, nearly half of opera singers came from working-class backgrounds. Today, as Adele Thomas, the recently appointed CEO of Welsh National Opera, has said, you need a private income just to live. Michael Sheen, who, like Thomas, comes from Port Talbot and whose inaugural production for the Welsh National Theatre opened this month, set up a programme to support writers from working-class and other underrepresented backgrounds."

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