The UK Government has announced the shortlist for the UK City of Culture 2029.

The UK City of Culture competition offers places an opportunity to use culture as a catalyst for regeneration, investment and building greater pride in place.

GC Insight works in local places across the UK to support place-making, regeneration and investment propositions linked to the cultural economy. Following the announcement of the shortlist for the fifth edition of the programme in 2029, we consider in this article what the programme is, who has been shortlisted, and the potential benefits for both successful and unsuccessful areas.

What is the City of Culture and what does it aim to achieve?

Announced back in 2010, Derry/Londonderry was named the inaugural UK City of Culture for 2013. The programme sees one local area designated as the City of Culture for a one-year period, with the award being made through a competition held every four years.

Administered by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the programme was inspired by the success of Liverpool’s 2008 designation as the European Capital of Culture by the European Union. The programme is designed to use local heritage, the arts and the creative industries as a catalyst for boosting economic growth, as well as supporting regeneration and pride in place. Cities winning the title hold a series of events across the year, celebrate local stories and aim to use the status to leave a lasting positive legacy in their local areas long beyond the year of their award status. The success of the programme has prompted the creation of a smaller scheme for a ‘Town of Culture’, with the first shortlist announced earlier this year.

Who are the shortlisted places and what have they focused on in their bids?

Blackpool

Blackpool is one of Britain’s best-known seaside resorts, with a cultural identity built around generations of tourism and popular entertainment. Its bid embraces this heritage while arguing that culture can play a bigger role in the future of the town and other coastal communities. The bid combines Blackpool’s entertainment heritage with ambitions to reshape perceptions of the town:

• Popular culture: Celebrating music, dance, comedy and entertainment alongside gaming and digital creativity.
• A big year: 2029 will mark 150 years of the Illuminations and 135 years since the opening of Blackpool Tower and the Grand Theatre.
• Changing perceptions: Using culture to demonstrate the potential of seaside towns and coastal communities.

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is one of Britain’s youngest cities, developed as a New Town from the late 1960s and known for its distinctive modernist design, grid system and planned green spaces. Its bid turns that relative youth into a strength, presenting Milton Keynes as an experimental city whose cultural story is still being written. Under the theme “We’re just getting started”, the bid focuses on the city’s distinctive past and its future potential:

• Design and innovation: Celebrating its architecture, urban planning, technology and history of experimentation.
• A young city: Using its relatively short history as part of its cultural identity and story.
• Investing in the future: Proposals include creative apprenticeships and Culture Kids MK, giving every baby born in 2029 five years of free cultural access.

Sheffield

Sheffield is a major South Yorkshire city whose identity has been shaped by its industrial and steelmaking heritage, alongside a nationally significant reputation for music, film and independent culture. Its bid builds on this combination of creativity, independence and strong neighbourhood identity. Sheffield’s bid places particular emphasis on culture created from the ground up by the people and communities in the city:

• Grassroots culture: Culture created with and by local people rather than focused solely on major institutions.
• Music and creativity: Building on strengths in music, film, art, gaming and performance.
• Community-led: More than 1,400 people contributed to consultation shaping the bid.

Wrexham

Wrexham is a city and wider county borough in North Wales with a strong industrial heritage, Welsh identity and a rapidly growing international profile, helped by the success of Wrexham AFC. Having narrowly missed out to Bradford for 2025, it is bidding again for 2029 and would become the first Welsh UK City of Culture if successful. The county-wide bid draws together Wrexham’s Welsh identity, communities and growing profile around a distinctive theme of play:

• The world’s most playful place: Using play as a theme for creativity, curiosity and experimentation.
• Distinctly Welsh: Bringing together Welsh language and identity with music, sport, industrial heritage and grassroots culture.
• County-wide: Extending beyond the city centre to communities across the whole county borough.
• Building on momentum: Seeking to translate Wrexham’s growing profile into lasting cultural and economic opportunities.

Who has previously been City of Culture and what have the impacts been?

Four places have been awarded the UK City of Culture status to date, including Derry/Londonderry in 2013, Hull in 2017, Coventry in 2021 and Bradford in 2025. For each place awarded the status, the programme has supported a range of benefits from increased profile and tourism to greater local pride.

An evaluation of the City of Culture in Derry/Londonderry by the University of Warwick found that participation in most forms of cultural activity was increased during the programme and that participation in City of Culture events in the city was “exceptionally high by all parts of the local population, including those from the most deprived communities”. The evaluation also highlighted other research by Queen’s University Belfast which found schoolchildren in the city 84% prouder to be from the city as a result of the City of Culture 2013.

Hull was the second UK City of Culture, opening with a series of sound and light installations known as ‘Made in Hull’ that were attended by over 300,000 people in the first week according to reports. According to a report by the University of Hull, the City of Culture status helped attract more than five million people, £220m of investment and 800 new jobs.

Coventry was awarded UK City of Culture 2021, with its programme taking place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city used government investment and other capital investment to support a range of cultural projects in the city, including the regeneration of the city centre and venues such as the Belgrade Theatre. As well as achieving significant successes, the city did face challenges during the programme both through the pandemic and through financial issues impacting the Trust administering the City of Culture programme locally.

Most recently, Bradford held UK City of Culture status. While Bradford held the title in 2025, some activity took place across a wider three-year period, with the programme estimated to have brought together audiences of 3 million people. Reports highlighted an increase in people travelling to the city by rail, and the programme has helped to build foundations for a number of regeneration and growth-focused investments. In the year since, Bradford has continued to build on the programme through its regeneration strategy, and it was recently announced that a new rail station is to be built in Bradford in the 2030s.

What should non-shortlisted areas be thinking about to still unlock local impacts?

Each shortlisted place for 2029 will receive at least £125,000 from the government to work further on their bid. For those that have been shortlisted but miss out on the top prize fund of £10m, there will still be opportunities to deliver local impacts, as there now are for areas not shortlisted.

During the bidding process, many areas will have brought together collaborations and partners, and considered new ways to use culture as a catalyst for growth in their areas. While non-shortlisted areas are not expected to receive funding through the programme, there are still opportunities to realise plans developed for bids, although potentially on a smaller scale and through other sources of funding. For example, after losing the 2021 title bid, Paisley launched Future Paisley, using the bid’s partnerships and ideas as a long-term cultural regeneration programme. By 2024 it had delivered more than 5,500 activities and awarded almost £2.7 million in cultural grants. The experience of Paisley and other places shows that the value of a City of Culture bid does not need to depend entirely on winning. Through retaining partnerships, agreeing a shared long-term vision and identifying alternative sources of investment, areas can turn the bidding process itself into a platform for culture-led regeneration and growth.

At GC Insight, we help places turn cultural ambition into evidence-led strategies, investable projects and measurable impact. Our recent work includes:

·       Assessing the economic, social and cultural contribution of Aviva Studios in Manchester.

·       Developing strategic and economic cases for nationally significant cultural investment on Liverpool Waterfront.

·       Supporting places such as Bolton to translate its cultural, leisure and visitor-economy ambitions into a practical delivery plan.

·       Undertaking the ongoing Heart of Barrow Cultural Offer Feasibility Study, exploring the feasibility, viability and delivery requirements for a potential new cultural venue within the wider town-centre regeneration programme.

·       Mapping creative-industry growth potential for Historic England, identifying where unused or under-used historic buildings across the North of England could provide space for creative businesses and where heritage investment could support culture-led regeneration.

Across these commissions, we combine socio-economic analysis, stakeholder engagement, visitor and audience insight, impact modelling, business cases and funding strategy to help clients understand their cultural assets, make the case for investment and connect culture to regeneration, inclusive growth and stronger local identity. Get in touch with our team to find out more.