Sacha Lord's company has £400,000 grant withdrawn by Arts Council after 'concerns raised'

The Arts Council has withdrawn a Covid grant that was awarded to a company owned by Sacha Lord, and is 'seeking to recover' the £400,000 support funding.

Primary Event Solutions, where he was a director, received a grant of more than £400,000 from the Culture Recovery Fund, administered by the Arts Council during the pandemic. Primary Event Solutions was wound up in 2023.

Mr Lord is the co-founder of the Parklife music festival, The Warehouse Project and in 2018 was made the region's first night time economy adviser by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

In May 2024, the Arts Council revealed it would be 'conducting additional checks' into an application made for Covid support funding by the company owned by Lord. Primary Event Solutions made an application to the fund on January 25, 2021, some six months after the fund was launched, according to the Arts Council.

And, in a statement issued this morning, an Arts Council England spokesperson said: “We take our role as custodians of public money very seriously and have processes in place to assess applications. If concerns are raised to us about a grant application or award, we investigate and take the appropriate action.

“Following a thorough review of the application that Primary Event Solutions submitted to the Culture Recovery Fund in 2021, our decision is to withdraw the grant that was awarded and we are seeking to recover this money.”

The Arts Council administered the Culture Recovery Fund during the Covid-19 pandemic to support the wide range of cultural organisations and infrastructure that we value as a nation.

Primary Event Solutions applied for the Covid grant from the Arts Council and was awarded a total of £401,928 on March 29, 2021, according to the Arts