Greater Manchester risks losing the working-class culture that helped define it as a global creative city unless urgent action is taken to reverse decades of cuts to arts education, a new inquiry has warned. GCSE entries in arts subjects fell by 42% between 2010 and 2024, following years in which creative subjects were sidelined after the creation of the EBacc. Several linked the decline of creative subjects to rising disengagement among pupils, including higher levels of truancy, suspension and behavioural issues. Formal entry routes remain scarce, with just 0.5% of all new apprenticeship starts in the creative sector despite huge demand. In Greater Manchester alone, one provider of affordable studio space reports a waiting list of more than 300 artists.