Thirteen years ago, Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland was awarded the status of the first UK City of Culture. 

The award was inspired by the success of Liverpool’s 2008 designation as the European Capital of Culture five years prior under the European Union scheme of the same name. Since then, other UK Cities have been awarded the title with similar successes which prompted the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to announce a successor project last year: the UK Town of Culture. Last week, the Government released its fifteen-strong shortlist for the first ‘Town of Culture’. Although the full decision-making process has not been made public, there are clear emerging takeaways that can be drawn from the shortlist.

GC Insight works in local places across the UK to support place-making, regeneration and investment propositions linked to the cultural economy. In this article, we explore what the Town of Culture programme is, who has been shortlisted, and what this could mean for culture in local communities.

What is the Town of Culture?

The sister programme to the UK City of Culture, the UK Town of Culture was launched by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy in late 2025. Unlike the UK City of Culture, which is awarded every four years, the title of the UK Town of Culture is handed out on an annual basis. The 410 towns who have applied for the first Town of Culture title represent every country and English region in the UK. All 15 shortlisted towns will now each receive £60,000 to design a fully detailed and costed bid for the title. Based on these bids, three finalists will then be drawn from the shortlist, with the two ‘runner up’ towns both receiving £250,000 and the finalist receiving £3 million. The winning town is expected to deliver the full programme of cultural events committed to in their bid, while the two runners-up will be expected to deliver ‘elements’ of it.

According to the DCMS guidance for Town of Culture shortlist applicants, bids will be graded on three key criteria: narrative (‘your story’), inclusivity (‘culture for Everyone’) and deliverability (‘making it happen’). The guidance allows for a degree of flexibility in what bidders define as culture, but lists possible examples including literature, music, theatre, dance, architecture, design and heritage. The types of activities that can be included in a Town of Culture bid are broad, but could include festivals, heritage trails, community activities and arts programmes.

What does the shortlist look like?

According to a release from DCMS, there were 410 Town of Culture bids for the title, of which just 3.7% (fifteen towns) were successful. Of all the applicants, 348 come from English towns, 31 from Welsh towns, 26 from Scotland and just 5 from Northern Ireland. There are also differences in terms of what kinds of towns are bidding with 60 large towns (population over 75,000), 147 mid-sized towns (population of 20-75,000) and 203 small towns (population under 20,000). 

Source: GC Insight, with data from DCMS (2026)

Of all applicants, nine of the winning towns were English, representing a ~2% shortlist rate. Meanwhile, of the 31 Welsh applicants, two towns were shortlisted, representing a shortlist rate of ~6.5%. Of the 26 Scottish applicants, three towns were shortlisted, representing a ~11.5% shortlist rate. Only five Northern Irish towns bid for the title, with its single shortlisted town, Strabane, equating to a 20% shortlist rate (although with just five applicants, it is difficult to state statistical significance in this). In terms of English regions, Yorkshire and Humber and the East of England each had two shortlisted towns (about 6%-shortlist rate for both). The East Midlands, North East, North West, South East and South West all had one shortlisted town per region, representing a range of shortlist rates between 1.4% (South East) to 5% (North East). The only English region without a shortlisted town was the West Midlands, meaning none of their 36 applicants were successful.

With the Town of Culture winner and two runners up being chosen from each of the town size categories, the odds of being successful varied significantly depending on the shortlisted town size category. 60 Large towns (with populations over 75,000) applied for the Town of Culture title, a significantly smaller number than the 147 applicant towns in the medium-size category (with populations between 20-75,000) and 203 in the small-size category (with populations up to 20,000). The number of areas in the shortlist for each of these categories varies somewhat with six small towns, five medium towns and four large towns chosen. This represents a shortlist rate of 3% for small towns, 3.4% for medium towns and 6.7% for large towns. This means twice the proportion of applicants from large towns were shortlisted compared with small towns. With this distribution, nearly 50% more large town applicants were successful than small towns applicants. Of the 60 large towns that applied for Town of Culture, none were from towns outside of England.

What are some key takeaways from the shortlist?

Although DCMS have not released a specific rationale for the shortlisting and there are no previous Town of Culture winners from which to draw takeaways, some understanding can be drawn:

• Geographical spread: Shortlisted towns were spread fairly evenly across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Even within individual UK countries, shortlisted towns were highly dispersed.
• Rural / coastal: Nine of the fifteen successful shortlisted towns (60%) were coastal.
• Deprivation: 5 of the 9 English shortlisted towns are in lower tier local authorities ranked in the top third for deprivation according to the English Indices of Multiple deprivation. None of the remaining four towns are in the top third of least deprived local authorities.
• National split: A higher proportion of non-English town applicants were shortlisted respective to their county’s applicant pool than with English towns. This imbalance is particularly notable in Scotland and Northern Ireland were 11.5 and 20% of towns which applied were shortlisted, compared to just 2% in England.
• Town size: Twice as many of the overall pool of large town applicants were shortlisted than in small towns.
• Types of successful bids: Components of a successful bid were wide ranging. Towns such as Ilfracombe, the Isle of Bute and Corby, which published elements or full details of their bids publicly, included a range of events and assets. These included arts trails, beer and jazz festivals, tangible heritage assets (e.g., castles and gardens), natural landscapes, intangible heritage (industrial and coastal histories).
• Timescales: Where details of successful bids are available, they show evidence that their proposals are both long lasting – with events throughout the year – and have elements that might deliver socioeconomic impacts for the community beyond the year of award.

What about towns who are not on the shortlist?

A significant amount of time and money has been spent across the country in local authorities whose towns that have been unsuccessful in achieving shortlist selection. Nonetheless, many towns have already stated an intention to proceed with elements of their plan in a scaled back manner that can be funded by local resources. For example, towns such as Buxton in Derbyshire and Kirkaldy in Scotland have both made public statements declaring that this will not inhibit their further development of a number of cultural projects detailed in their Town of Culture bid.

As part of Town of Culture bid preparation, many towns have developed strong partnerships with local stakeholders. These partnerships can now be repurposed for other bids and projects. Also significant for towns that were not shortlisted is the possibility to use insights gathered to develop future local strategies. This could include Cultural Strategies, Destination Management Strategies or Town Visions or strategies. Elements of bids prepared for the Town of Culture can also be used in future Town of Culture bids or cannibalised for smaller Pride in Place grants.

GC Insight support places across the UK with place-making and regeneration, assessing the socio-economic impacts of cultural-related programmes, and the preparation of strategic plans and design of interventions to support cultural investment including through initiatives such as Pride in Place. Connect with our team to find out more.

Published: 16 July 2026 - Author: Paddy Moat