Sacha Lord steps down as Manchester’s night-time economy advisor as Arts Council withdraws £400k grant

Sacha Lord has stepped down from his position as Manchester’s night-time economy advisor. The news comes after Arts Council England announced its intention to withdraw a £400,000 grant that had been given to a firm co-owned by Lord during the pandemic amid allegations of misuse.

Primary Event Solutions, which Lord had a 30% stake in before it was liquidated in 2023, received a £401,928 grant as part of the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund in 2021, which was set up to support arts and culture businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This week, however, Arts Council England said it intended to recover the money that was issued to Primary Event Solutions. Although an initial probe into allegations of fraud against the company in 2022 found no evidence of misuse of public money, a further investigation was launched in 2024 in the wake of a piece published by The Manchester Mill, which called into question the company’s involvement in cultural activities. The publication’s investigation alleged that the company’s grant application was “riddled with spurious and misleading statements about what Primary Event Solutions — previously called Primary Security — actually did” and that numerous members of staff only remembered it offering “security services”.

A spokesperson from the Arts Council this week told The 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.”

Following Arts Council England’s announcement, Lord — who is also the founder of The Warehouse Project and Parklife Festival — confirmed he would be stepping away from his role as Manchester’s night-time economy advisor, saying in a statement: “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a city-region — earning recognition as the ‘night-time capital of the UK’. 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.”

His statement went on to insist that Arts Council England had found no evidence that his firm had “deliberately misled” the organisation, but that “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 accepted Lord’s resignation from his role, describing him as a “champion” for nightlife in the region. “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,” Burnham added. “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 continued to give support grants to different cultural organisations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with £5 million worth of funds having previously been released in late 2023.