Theatres, cinemas, venues and heritage sites across Suffolk are set to benefit from a £1.57bn emergency government funding package.

The government unveiled the package on Sunday, July 5, and labelled it the “biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture”.

The £1.15bn support pot for cultural organisations in England will be made up of £270m of loans and £880m of grants.

It also includes money for the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland (£33m), Scotland (£97m) and Wales (£59m), the Government said.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden had come under increasing pressure to step in and support the industry, with more than 1,500 artists and acts having signed a letter to him calling for a roadmap to recovery.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “From iconic theatre and musicals, mesmerising exhibitions at our world-class galleries to gigs performed in local basement venues, the UK’s cultural industry is the beating heart of this country.

Locally, theatres and venues across the region had called for a similar scheme to be implemented, with Eastern Angles co-founder Ivan Cutting calling for more support, while Brendan Keaney, artistic director of DanceEast, labelled the earlier Government roadmap as “shockingly empty”.

Reacting to the news via Twitter, Ipswich-based Gecko Theatre said: “This is quite amazing news, we’ll wait to analyse the detail, but we are optimistic that this will help secure the future of those in the creative industries.”