Guidance

UK City of Culture 2029 Expression of Interest: Guidance for bidders

Published 30 October 2025

Island of Foam at Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Image credit: Andrew Benge

Introduction

This guidance has been produced by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to assist the places (including larger towns, cities, regions and groups of places) that wish to bid for the title of UK City of Culture 2029. This guidance outlines the aims of the competition and details the requirements for the initial Expression of Interest (EOI) stage. This guidance also sets out the bidding and selection process for the later stages of the competition, to support planning. Places wishing to apply for the UK City of Culture 2029 competition are advised to read this guidance in full.

A Welsh language version of this guidance will follow.

What is UK City of Culture?

UK City of Culture is a competition run by DCMS, inviting places across the UK to set out their vision for culture-led transformation. It is open to cities, towns, regions and groups of places. First launched in 2009 and now in its fifth iteration, the competition has supported Derry/Londonderry, Hull, Coventry and Bradford to deliver a year of rich cultural activity rooted in their unique identities and drawing on local strengths and stories. It has supported many others to articulate a vision for their place and consider the place of culture in their plans and aspirations. It is a UK-wide programme, developed in collaboration with the devolved governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and has become a model for cultural place-making.

Aims

The UK City of Culture competition aims to celebrate and support communities in places up and down the UK to use culture as a catalyst for transforming places and the lives of people through driving growth and good jobs, creating richer lives with choices and opportunities for all, and building a more socially cohesive country where communities feel proud of their place and empowered to change it. Being named UK City of Culture is a transformational moment in a place’s growth and the competition is an opportunity for places and communities to raise their ambitions and put culture and creativity at the heart of their plans for transformation and aspirations for the future.

Benefits of winning

The benefits of holding the title of UK City of Culture are clear. The success of previous winners Derry/Londonderry, Hull, Coventry and Bradford demonstrates how the programme can drive positive economic and social outcomes, develop lasting local, national and international partnerships, and bring people together. It can also strengthen communities, build a sense of place and inspire local pride, celebrating and boosting local and grassroots arts and culture, and attract new investment and tourism.

Research has shown that the UK City of Culture programme so far (not including Bradford 2025) has stimulated additional investment of over £1 billion, and that more than 70% of attendees to UK City of Culture events feel a greater sense of pride. In the first six months of Bradford’s title year, their programmes reached over one million people, including 11,000 pupils and more than 2,000 volunteers from every ward in the district. We also know that the benefits for places extend well beyond their title year, leading to a lasting legacy of social, cultural, and economic change.

Benefits of bidding

We know that bidding for the title - not just winning - can have a hugely positive impact on a place. The process of preparing a bid can help to bring partners together and develop strategic cultural leadership, showcasing and opening up access to your local culture, art and heritage, and articulating your ambitions for the future. We know from previous competitions that these ideas and partnerships can, and often will, carry on irrespective of whether a bid is ultimately successful and many previous bidders have gone on to realise elements of their bids despite being unsuccessful in this competition.

The last competition received a record number of bids and this time around we want as many places as possible from across the UK to have the opportunity to draw on the benefits of bidding. We have designed the competition with this in mind: with a light touch initial EOI stage and funding to support bidders in the later stages of the competition, as well as for runners up. We would encourage bidders to think about how you would use DCMS funding and work with partners to take forward elements of your bid, even if you are not selected as UK City of Culture 2029.

Funding

We are pleased to announce guaranteed £10 million prize money for the winning place to support them with the delivery of their programme, as well as £125,000 resource grants for each of the (up to) three ‘runners up’ to allow them to take forward some elements of their bid. We recognise that commitment of funding up front can provide places with the confidence and security to engage with the competition and launch ambitious bids.

We recognise that there are costs associated with developing and submitting a bid and we want places to feel able to bid and to benefit from the bidding process. The EOI phase is light-touch and has been designed to keep costs to a minimum at the outset. DCMS will award bid development grants of £60,000 to each of the (up to) eight longlisted places which are invited to submit a full application.

You need to outline in your EOI how you would spend this £60,000 grant. It is a flexible source of funding to strengthen your full application and help to develop a scalable plan, for example on:

• Research & Development (R&D)
• Consultation
• Human resources
• Data gathering
• Commercial expertise for proposed capital plans

UK City of Culture 2029 competition criteria

The UK City of Culture 2029 criteria set out the strategic objectives of the programme and should be used by bidding places to inform their bids. They will be used by the Expert Advisory Panel to assess bids at all stages of the competition. The criteria have been updated for this competition to focus even more on involving local people in shaping the bid and making sure they really benefit from the opportunities and impacts delivered by the programme.

To be successful, EOIs must demonstrate how they meet the criteria and show potential to make a significant contribution to the aims of the UK City of Culture programme.

Table 1: UK City of Culture 2029 competition aims and criteria

Aims	Criteria
1. Share and celebrate a uniquely local story and vision which uses culture and creativity to transform a place	1. Vision: Articulate a strong and unique vision for your place and programme, informed by communities and underpinned by a compelling local story which uses the catalytic effect of culture and heritage to bring people together, building a sense of place and inspiring local pride. 2. Leadership: Demonstrate a strong, collaborative leadership approach with clear commitment and involvement from local authorities, community organisations, and the cultural sector, ensuring a credible long-term cultural legacy. 3. Local need: Set out a programme and legacy that is shaped by communities and uses culture to respond to and address specific local priorities and targets those that are most in need. 4. Transformation: Present a strategic understanding of what ‘transformation’ means for your place and how it can deliver a measurable and sustaining step change for people and place, including the articulation of clear social, wellbeing and economic impacts.
2. Create transformative opportunities and richer lives for people and communities	5. Opportunity: Create increased opportunities for everyone, especially young people, to access and participate in culture. 6. Empower: Demonstrate commitment to actively including local communities, grassroots artists and creatives, and regional and local leaders in decision-making. Also demonstrate commitment to supporting them to directly shape the bid, programme and legacy, devolving decision-making power to communities where possible. 7. Cohesion: Promote and increase community cohesion, engaging and inspiring local communities to volunteer and bring people together by creating spaces and opportunities for social mixing. 8. Pride: Build a sense of belonging and inspire local and national pride.
3. Create a sustainable economic impact by delivering good jobs and boosting growth in your place or wider region	9. Context: Show a clear understanding of how your proposal fits with and strengthens wider regional or national growth plans. 10. Growth: Increase investment in culture and creativity, leading to higher productivity and output, to enhance the profile of the area as a cultural destination, leading to boosted tourism and new investment to drive inclusive growth. 11. Jobs: Increase local employment opportunities in the cultural and creative industries - before, during and beyond your programme year. 12. Skills: Increase inclusive opportunities for the development of specialist and life skills and for routes into creative and cultural careers, including for but not limited to young people.
4. Champion quality and innovation	13. Quality: Deliver a high quality cultural programme that builds and expands on local strengths and assets, and draws on the best of the UK’s art, heritage and creative industries to contribute to the UK’s reputation as a world-leader in the cultural and creative industries. 14. Innovation: Demonstrate cultural and artistic excellence, creativity and innovation, including through using technology to open up access to culture. 15. Environmental responsibility: Embed environmentally sustainable practices into the programme and its legacy, demonstrating contribution to the UK’s Net Zero and nature protection objectives, and promote and inspire environmental responsibility.
5. Reach out locally and across the UK to work with a range of diverse partners	16. Shared story: Strengthen and celebrate connections with places across the four nations of the UK (and also internationally, if important to your place and its story), drawing on culture and heritage to collaboratively tell our shared story through an outward-looking and highly inclusive programme. 17. Partnerships: Collaborate with a broad range of local, regional and national partners (and also international, if important to your place and its story), actively pursuing new opportunities and making meaningful and lasting connections that contribute to your place’s long term vision.
6. Maximise the legacy of the UK City of Culture programme	18. Evaluate: Present a robust and achievable evaluation plan and methodology to monitor and evaluate the impact and expected step change of the programme, drawing on previous winning places. 19. Embed: Demonstrate a clear understanding of how the programme aligns with and/or embeds into existing local cultural strategies beyond 2029, or how the programme can be used as a catalyst to develop a cultural strategy which aligns with existing local strategies. 20. Sustain: Present an ambitious and robust plan that demonstrates how the strategy underpinning the programme will deliver a strong ecosystem of cultural and creative organisations rooted in and actively shaped by the community, and strengthen local leadership, partnerships and capability.

Which places can bid?

We welcome bids from places across the UK and bidding is not restricted to cities. As a guide, we also encourage bids from larger towns, regions or groups of places. It is for the place itself to decide if it fulfils the requirements. Bidding places must be able to demonstrate a clear central focus and cohesive identity to the area. Part of the programme can be delivered in a wider hinterland, including rural areas, and bidders are encouraged to consider how their longer-term strategy will engage and benefit surrounding communities.

Bidding places must be able to successfully manage, fund and deliver a programme that can demonstrably lead to regeneration and transformation of the area and respond to specific local needs. They must also be able to demonstrate sufficient existing cultural, digital and social infrastructure (or credible plans to develop them) to provide the critical mass for a year-long programme to be successful and deliverable in 2029. Bidders will be expected to demonstrate their confidence and readiness to deliver an ambitious programme in their EOI application, and again in more detail at full application stage.

The only areas precluded from bidding are any parts of Greater London, but this does not prevent these areas or London-based organisations being partners in a bid for an area outside London.

Guidance for Towns

We want towns up and down the UK to consider bidding to be the next UK City of Culture. The criteria for the UK City of Culture 2029 competition have been updated to support all types of eligible places to apply and compete. It is hoped that the renewed focus on ambitious programmes that prioritise local impact, respond to specific local needs and transform places and the lives of local communities, will further encourage larger towns to apply.

We are also launching a new competition, UK Town of Culture, which will see the winner deliver a programme in Spring/Summer 2028 and receive £3.5 million prize funding to support this.

As a guide, we would advise that larger towns consider applying to UK City of Culture and that small and medium sized towns apply to UK Town of Culture. This is a guide only, it will not be mandated and bids from all towns that fulfil the requirements of the ‘Which places can bid?’ section of this guidance will be considered. We would encourage towns to consider their capacity to deliver and what would most benefit their area. It will ultimately be for towns themselves to choose which competition they apply to. Further guidelines will be published on the UK Town of Competition in due course.

Towns may wish to refer to the following guidance on size of towns/urban areas based on population in their planning:

• For Northern Ireland - Review of the Statistical Classification and Delineation of Settlements, The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)
• For Scotland - Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification 2022
• For England and Wales - Understanding towns in England and Wales: an introduction, Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Which organisations can bid?

We expect bids to be from a partnership for your bidding place and include the relevant local authorities. This partnership may be well-established, but it does not need to be and we welcome bids from newly formed place partnerships. Bids will need to specify a single organisation to be ‘Lead applicant’ for information and communication purposes during the competition process. The Lead applicant must be a formally constituted accountable organisation; they do not need to be a local authority, but the relevant local authority will need to be in a dedicated role in the bid partnership.

The partnership should demonstrate commitment to work collaboratively and include a wide range of community and cross-sector partners such as: local businesses, industry and civic leaders, higher education institutions, cultural bodies, local library services, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and be aligned to other regional strategic bodies. It should also demonstrate commitment to actively including local communities in decision-making and supporting them to directly shape what happens in their area. This commitment to community collaboration should be demonstrated at all stages of the competition.

Accountability for the programme

If successful, the winning place will be required to specify a chosen ‘Accountable Body’ and ‘Delivery Body’ for their programme (which may be the same organisation but does not need to be). You will need to set out your plan for this at the EOI stage, in reference to the below definitions.

Accountable Body: A place’s chosen party, who are the recognised Accountable Body in relation to a planned UK City of Culture programme e.g. the relevant local or regional public authority. If successful, the Accountable Body will have overall responsibility and ownership for the programme. The responsibilities of the Accountable Body may include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring the safe and successful delivery of a UK City of Culture programme;
• Managing the financial and legal requirements associated with the delivery of a UK City of Culture programme;
• Taking responsibility for the organisation of a UK City of Culture programme, including leading on the necessary coordination between relevant partners;
• Taking responsibility for any grant funding associated with a UK City of Culture programme, for which the Accountable Body is the recipient organisation; and
• Monitoring delivery of a UK City of Culture programme and undertaking relevant reporting as may be required by DCMS.

Delivery Body: A place’s chosen party who will be responsible for the planning, procuring, commissioning and delivery of a planned UK City of Culture programme.

What do we mean by culture?

Culture means different things to different places and communities, and we want local stories and the unique character of places to shine through in bids. We expect bidders to showcase the strengths of the cultural offer in the area, acknowledge its weaknesses, and its ambition and potential to improve. It will be up to you to make the case for which activities are included in your proposed cultural programme and articulate the step change you aim to achieve. We expect programmes to be able to appeal to a wide range of audiences and to increase participation in cultural activities, especially amongst young people, as well as contributing to economic growth, regeneration, community cohesion, health and wellbeing.

Applicants are encouraged to include activities encompassing a broad definition of culture and its creative industries. This includes but is not limited to: visual arts, literature; music; theatre; dance; combined arts; architecture; crafts; design; heritage and the historic and natural environment; museums and galleries; libraries and archives; film, broadcasting and media; video games; animation, visual and special effects; photography, and publishing.

Alignment with UK Government missions and priorities

The UK City of Culture competition is part of the UK Government’s ambitious Plan for Change and champions the missions to break down barriers to opportunity and kickstart economic growth in places across the UK. Arts and culture are a vital part of the UK’s first-class creative industries, one of the country’s key growth-driving sectors in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy. The Creative Industries Sector Plan provides a framework to build on the sector’s existing strengths and capitalise on new opportunities.

The competition complements other UK Government initiatives to support culture to thrive, such as the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund, which will ensure that everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to experience great culture and access to high quality institutions in the places they call home.

Local government is foundational to the sharing of cultural opportunity across the UK, and to the successful delivery of UK City of Culture. Local authorities should work with local people to ensure that their bid and creative vision is reflective of their communities. In this way, the UK City of Culture competition embodies the principles set out in the English Devolution White Paper, the biggest transfer of power out of Westminster to England’s regions this century.

It further complements other UK Government place-based initiatives, notably the Pride in Place Strategy which sets out a plan to create safer, healthier neighbourhoods where communities can thrive. The Pride in Place Programme represents one of the largest investments in deprived neighbourhoods for a generation - up to £5 billion over 10 years to support up to 250 places.

We encourage bidders to think about how their bid aligns with, builds on or prepares for other funds and initiatives as well as how it is integrated in wider local and regional inclusive growth plans. This will be assessed in a light touch way at this EOI stage and bidders will be expected to demonstrate this in more detail at the full application stage.

Bids should actively complement, rather than duplicate or compete with funding already delivering or set to deliver in their areas. Areas should not consider the UK City of Culture competition as an opportunity to plug any gap in funding not realised by other government funds. Nor should places that did or do not receive support through other funds feel that they are at a disadvantage in applying to the UK City of Culture competition. We want to support all bidders to realise culture’s contribution to transformational step change.

Environmental considerations

One of the UK Government’s missions is to make Britain a clean energy superpower and accelerate to net zero by 2050. Tackling climate change is the one of the most urgent shared endeavours of our lifetimes, demanding bold action from us all. Our towns and cities are on the front line of climate change and culture is a powerful tool in tackling environmental challenges. Bids for UK City of Culture 2029 should embed environmentally sustainable practices into their plans, demonstrating contribution to the UK’s net zero and nature protection objectives, and promote and inspire environmental responsibility.

In practice this means programming should be based on low or zero carbon best practice, adopt and support innovative clean tech where possible and support the growing skills and supply chains in support of net zero where possible. To support green growth, bids should also consider how the programme can work with the natural environment to achieve its objectives, and - at a minimum - consider the programme’s impact on our country’s natural assets and nature. Julie’s Bicycle, partner of Arts Council England, has collaborated on a range of resources, reports and case studies showcasing places and organisations across the world becoming more sustainable with culture as their driver.

Learning from previous UK Cities of Culture

The UK City of Culture programme was developed by the UK Government in consultation with the devolved governments to build on the success of Liverpool as European Capital of Culture 2008. Since then its positive impact has been felt in Derry-Londonderry, Hull, Coventry and now Bradford, as well as the many other places that have been involved in this competition.

Previous UK Cities of Culture have published evaluation reports for their programmes:

• Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture 2013 evaluation
• Hull UK City of Culture 2017 evaluation
• Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 evaluation

Bidding places may also wish to refer to the following evidence reviews which explore the impacts of winning and bidding in the competition:

• Evidence review: UK City of Culture programme
• UK Cities of Culture: Stakeholder interviews with runner-up applicants

Support during the bidding process

DCMS plans to host an information session for all interested bidders on 1 December 2025. Representatives from places with experience and expertise in bidding, organising and driving culture-led change over the past decade will be available to share their knowledge and advice. Details will follow, please contact ukcityofculture2029-competition@dcms.gov.uk with any questions.

We would encourage interested bidders to attend this information session to access information from previous bidders e.g. Bradford. DCMS, other government departments, and arms-length bodies will not be available to provide further support for bidders at the EOI stage of the competition. Longlisted places will have access to further expertise, support and advice during the preparation of their full applications, and we will provide further guidance on this in due course.

Expert Advisory Panel

The UK City of Culture Expert Advisory Panel plays a key role in the competition. The panel brings a broad and diverse range of sector experience and expertise and will provide critical and objective assessment of bids and make recommendations to the Secretary of State for DCMS at all stages of the competition. The panel will also undertake visits to shortlisted places and act as a critical friend to the winning place.

The UK City of Culture 2029 panel will be led by Sir Phil Redmond CBE, as Chair. It comprises the Deputy Chair (Claire McColgan CBE), representatives for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and up to five other ordinary members. We are running an open recruitment process for panel members yet to be appointed. More information will be provided in due course.

Competition stages

The selection process is intended to ensure that the best possible bidder from across the UK is selected to become UK City of Culture 2029. The competition has been designed to lead to the designation of a place that has an ambitious and unique vision for what it will achieve in 2029 and beyond; but also one that has credible and realistic plans to be able to turn its vision into reality.

There are three main stages to the competition.

Stage 1 - Expression of Interest (EOI)

1. The EOI phase is an opportunity for bidding places to succinctly articulate their vision, key elements of their proposed programme, and readiness to deliver. The short EOI form asks for responses to five questions. The EOI has been designed to be a light touch first step. We recognise the challenge on resources at this early stage so do not expect detailed economic data, research, branding visuals or in depth fundraising or delivery plans. For more information on how to apply, see the ‘How to make an Expression of Interest (EOI)’ section below.

2. The Expert Advisory Panel will assess the EOIs against the relevant competition criteria and select a longlist of up to eight places. The panel will submit their recommendation for the longlist to the Secretary of State for DCMS, who will make the final decision. DCMS intends to announce the longlist of places that will proceed to the next stage of the competition in February 2026.

Stage 2 - Longlisted places make a full application

3. Up to eight longlisted places will be awarded a grant of £60,000 each to support them with developing and strengthening their full application. We intend to publish detailed full application guidance in February 2026, including our expectations for data submission. Applicants will have up to four months to complete the full application.

4. The full application will ask questions in more depth and will expect you to set out a detailed plan for how you will deliver your vision, including a programme plan and narrative, partnerships and budget. We will require information about your local context, priority needs and challenges and how you will use UK City of Culture to address them. We will also require applicants to undertake research and consultation, and present data relating to social, cultural and economic impact as well as credible, detailed delivery, fundraising and governance plans, particularly for any planned capital project. The full applications should be scalable so that elements can be taken forward and impacts realised to a certain extent regardless of success in this competition.

5. The panel will assess the full applications of the longlisted places against the competition criteria and recommend a shortlist of up to four places. The panel will submit their recommendation for the shortlist to the Secretary of State for DCMS, who will make the final decision. We will provide feedback to all the longlisted places.

Stage 3 - Shortlisted places host and present to the panel

6. The panel will visit the shortlisted places, who will be invited to present to the panel and engage in detailed discussions about their plans.

7. The panel will submit their recommendation for the winner of UK City of Culture 2029 to the Secretary of State for DCMS, who will make the final decision. We will provide feedback to all the shortlisted places.

8. DCMS aims to announce the UK City of Culture 2029 winner before the end of 2026.

Key competition milestones

Table 2: Key competition milestones and indicative dates

Milestone	Dates
Expressions of Interest (EOI)	Opens: 30 October 2025 Deadline: 11 January 2026
Information event for bidders	1 December 2025
Longlisted places announced	February 2026
Longlisted places make full application	Opens: February 2026 Deadline: May/June 2026
Shortlisted places announced	Summer 2026
Panel visit to shortlisted places	September 2026
Winner announced	Winter 2026
UK City of Culture 2029 winner’s delivery year	January - December 2029

How to make an Expression of Interest (EOI)

Register as a bidder

The first step is to register as a bidder for the UK City of Culture 2029 title by emailing ukcityofculture2029-competition@dcms.gov.uk and providing the following information which will allow us to contact you quickly if we need to, send the branding guidelines and share information about the information workshop for prospective bidders:

• Place name of bidding place
• Brief geographical description of bidding place
• Named contact and contact details for the bidding team

EOI form

Bidders should download and complete the EOI form template and return by email to ukcityofculture2029-competition@dcms.gov.uk.

Download the EOI form template

The EOI form comprises five sections, structured around five questions which each require a statement response:

1. Make your Creative Pitch: What is the vision for your place?

2. Where is your focus and who is leading your bid?

3. What transformative step change will you deliver for your place and its people?

4. How will you collaborate with partners and communities on the journey?

5. How ready and confident are you to deliver?

Further instructions, including word limits and prompts to use as a guide in your responses, are detailed in the EOI form template.

The deadline to submit the EOI form is:

23:59 on Sunday 11 January 2026.

DCMS will not consider EOIs received after this date.

EOI assessment

The EOIs will be assessed by the Expert Advisory Panel against the relevant criteria set out in Table 1 of the ‘UK City of Culture 2029 competition criteria’ section above. There is not an expectation that EOIs will respond to the full criteria at this stage of the competition. Bids made at full application stage will be expected to demonstrate how they fulfil all the competition criteria in detail. The panel will recommend a longlist of up to eight places to the Secretary of State for DCMS, who will make the final decision. Feedback will be provided to all longlisted bids. DCMS is unable to provide feedback on bids that are not longlisted.

‘UK City of Culture 2029’ title, trade mark and branding

The competition winner will be designated as “UK City of Culture 2029”. We will issue branding guidance to all registered bidders to outline how bidding, winning and legacy places are able to use the title and trade mark in the years running up to and after 2029.

Media and publicity

We expect there to be significant publicity associated with the selection process, with coverage at a local and national level. We will issue press releases on the results of the longlisting, shortlisting and final selection processes. All the bidding places will be listed on the DCMS website (with links to their respective bid website if applicable) and may be referenced in press releases. The DCMS communications team will be in touch with communications teams in bidding locations as needed to update on plans and embargos.

Data sharing and transparency

The UK City of Culture programme and its evaluation is crucial to our developing understanding of the social and economic impacts of cultural investment. Every four years we receive an incredible volume of information and data. Once the 2029 title has been awarded, we plan to deposit all bids (initial EOIs and full applications) in the National Archives, the official public archive of the UK Government, to allow researchers and the public free access to this wealth of detail. We understand that some data may be commercially sensitive, so we will work with all bidders to provide redacted versions as necessary.

Data Protection

DCMS is committed to using any personal information we collect on a lawful, fair and transparent basis, respecting your legal rights as an individual in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and other applicable laws that regulate the use and privacy of personal data (Data Protection Law).

As part of us meeting this requirement, we have published our General Privacy Notice for you to refer to. For further information about our obligations and your rights under Data Protection Law, as well as how to report a concern if you believe that your personal data is being collected or used illegally, please also see the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Contact

For further information please contact ukcityofculture2029-competition@dcms.gov.uk.