Newcastle artists fear they could be forced out of city centre hub by 30% council rent hike

Artists and other creatives fear they could be forced out of Newcastle city centre after being hit with rent hikes of up to 32%.

Dozens of studio holders at High Bridge Works have been told to expect substantially higher rent bills from Newcastle City Council, which many fear they will not be able to cover. It comes amid concerns that the local authority can no longer afford to subsidise the creative hub, which has endured a chequered history and is expected to need more than £300,000 of public money to balance its books this year.

Numerous studio holders who spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) warned that they would be forced to leave the High Bridge building if the impending rent rise, which has been set at 32% for artists and 21% for other tenants, goes ahead as planned. The city council insisted that it wants the building’s collection of creative businesses to stay and had agreed to delay the increase for three months, rather than enforce it from the start of April, in a bid to “give everyone more time to try and come up with a solution”.

Michelle Percy, the council’s director of place, said at a scrutiny committee last month that artistic industries were the “lifeblood of the city” but that it would be “wholly inappropriate to use public cash in order to subsidise businesses that are trading”. But artist Giedre Ka told the LDRS that High Bridge Works should be treated as a cultural rather than commercial asset.

She said: “There are more and more people moving out and it is a huge shame. My rent is increasing by 30% and I was given 30 days’ notice. It just makes it unaffordable to be in the city centre.

“The council says it wants to bring artists back into the city centre, but there is a lack of affordable art studios. What they say and what they do doesn’t match up.”

Calling for the council and building managers Knight Frank to agree to a three to five-year transition period to allow tenants to catch up with the higher rents, she added that artists are “financially vulnerable and we cannot just absorb those costs”. Questions have also been raised about a large space on the first floor of the building, which had previously been occupied by Northumbria University, having been left empty without a tenant for some time.

The council said the proposed rent increase would affect 26 tenants and generate an extra £25,779 per year for the authority, which expects High Bridge Works to be in a £313,000 deficit when figures for the last financial year are finalised.

Studio holder Gary Carter said: “For me, it feels like the council isn’t bothered about the building. This place is meant to be a creative space and it was never meant to be commercial.”

Ben Pilkington, whose digital marketing business is based at High Bridge Works, said he could “just about” cover a rent increase this year but that any further hike “would really make it less viable for me to be here”. He added: “It is really affecting the creative people the hardest, they are being much harder hit than I am.”

A council spokesperson said that civic centre bosses “value hugely the artists and creative businesses in High Bridge Works”. They added: “We want them to stay and are determined to try and find a resolution. We recently met with the tenants to listen to their concerns and as a result have paused the rent rise for three months to give everyone more time to try and come up with a solution that is acceptable to all.

“We have every sympathy with them and fully appreciate they will not want a rise in their rents. Recognising the value they bring to our city centre, we have been subsidising the costs of the building for tenants, but sadly this has become increasingly challenging given the significant cost pressures facing councils across the country.

“Our managing agent will shortly have 12 months’ of actual costs for running the building. Once we have that information, we have agreed to hold a further meeting with the tenants to discuss how to reduce the running costs of the building. We are not looking to make a profit from the building but simply reduce the financial burden on the council.

“We are also in discussions with Arts Council England to see if they can offer any additional support. We hope that this can provide some reassurance to tenants amid an increasingly difficult financial climate for us all.”

The four-storey building was previously at the centre of a political storm amid rows surrounding management failures and escalating costs as it was being developed. It was purchased by the city council in March 2002 with the aim of opening a gallery that would be a “unique, artist-led city centre workspace project”, but more than £10 million was ultimately spent on a troubled renovation that suffered from multiple delays and spiralling costs.

Concerns mounted about “deficiencies” in the management team tasked with delivering what was then known as the Waygood Gallery, with the local authority and Arts Council England ultimately severing their relationship with Waygood before the gallery was even opened. The grade II listed former home of Ward’s Printers finally opened to the public in 2012 as Baltic 39 under the management of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, which subsequently exited the building in 2021.

Filmmaker Tina Gharavi, part of a volunteer group running a High Bridge Community Interest Company (CIC) which now operates the Newcastle Contemporary Art gallery on the top floor of the building, also raised concerns about the rent rises’ impact on independent artists. She told the LDRS that “rent going up by 20 or 30% would be a cash flow issue for any business”.

The CIC, which also counts former Waygood chief executive Helen Smith among its directors, does not itself pay the council any rent for use of the gallery space. But Dr Gharavi argued that it had actually “dramatically reduced” the council’s financial burden and that there is an “obligation” for a gallery to be part of the building under the terms of the funding agreement dating back to its refurbishment.

She said: “During the time when Baltic ran managed the building, the council was paying Baltic money to have a curator and run a programme (as well as manage the building) – approximately £100,00 to £150,000 per year. That disappeared when Baltic stepped away and when the volunteer group offered to manage the gallery.

“We run it and keep it afloat without any subsidy from the city council, so I would argue that we have reduced their liability. If they charged us rent it would be unviable.”

Dr Gharavi added: “The first floor of the building has been empty for over a year. That is commercial space that nobody seems to have been incentivised to resolve. They are charging very high amounts on it. If there is a hole in the council budget, one does not have to look any further than that floor.”

The city council confirmed that the art gallery’s rent-free arrangement “will be reviewed at the next lease event”.