Sacha Lord resigns as Manchester nightlife advisor amid £400k arts funding fraud allegations
Sacha Lord has stepped down from his role as Manchester’s night-time economy advisor after Arts Council England announced that it has withdrawn a £400k grant given to his firm amid fraud allegations.
Primary Event Solutions, which Lord had a 30% stake in before it entered liquidation in 2023, received a £401,928 grant as part of Cultural Recovery Fund in 2021 — a programme to aid arts and culture businesses that suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A probe was launched into the use of the funds following an investigation by Manchester Mill in 2024, that cast a doubt over Primary Event Solution’s involvement in cultural activities — with former employees claiming it had operated solely as a security firm.
As reported by the BBC, Arts Council England had “found no evidence” that the money had been misused during an initial investigation in 2022.
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Arts Council England announced today (January 29) that it intended to withdraw the grant issued to Lord’s firm, with a spokesperson telling Manchester Mill: “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 statement adds.
Following the announcement, the Warehouse Project and Parklife founder release a statement confirming that he would be stepping back from his role as Night-Time Economy Advisor to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
“I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a city-region – earning recognition as the ‘night-time capital of the UK,” he wrote. “However, the emotional toll and experience over recent months has given me the opportunity to reflect and gradually step back from my role in Greater Manchester.”
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His statement goes on to insist that Arts Council England had found no evidence that his firm had “deliberately misled” the organisation, “however, given the company’s current status in liquidation, and recognising that there are a small number of unintended oversights which have impacted the application’s clarity under the criteria, we accept that the grant status has been updated.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham thanked Lord for his work as Night-Time Economy Advisor, crediting him as a “champion” of the city’s nightlife and culture sectors “during one of the industry’s most difficult periods in living memory.”
“Sacha has accepted there were inaccuracies in a grant application, and I believe him when he says there was no intention to mislead and that he made no personal gain from the grant,” he adds. “Given that the Arts Council’s Counter Fraud team previously found no misuse of public money, it is not clear to me why the Arts Council has now reached this decision.”
Arts Council England has investigated a number of grants awarded as part Cultural Recovery Fund in 2021, including a £223,822 grant awarded to Birmingham promoter Sundissential that was found to have been inactive for three years prior.
While the Cultural Recovery Fund had issued £409 million in grants, a number of London venues shuttered as a result of COVID-19 social distancing restrictions were denied funding – including Printworks, Egg London, Studio 338 and The Pickle Factory – a move that was met with controversy following news that online platforms such as Boiler Room and Resident Advisor had been granted sums upwards of £750k.
You can read Sacha Lord’s full statement via Manchester Mill, here.
Megan Townsend is Mixmag’s Deputy Editor, follow her on Twitter
