In the first of a new series on arts issues and local authorities, Paul Kelly explains how cuts to councils arts budgets will affect everyone in the arts.
Incremental cuts over several years are now threatening the very fabric of local authority arts provision. If the trend continues, major English regional theatres, concert halls, galleries and arts centres could be at risk because of falling local authority arts budgets. On the one hand it doesnt seem credible but on the other, nalgao (the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers) has been monitoring the budget trends with growing concern. Its latest survey shows that:
" 79% of local authorities were expecting standstill arts budgets or budget cuts
" Over the past four years, 18 English local authorities (5% of total) have completely cut their arts services
" This local authority arts budget loss amounts to £5.5m of direct services, leading to a further £18.15m lost in leverage funding.
Many local authority arts services, the survey revealed, are in a vulnerable condition as a result of year-on-year budget reductions. And, in addition to inflation running at 2.95%, local authorities are expected to find annual 2.5% Gershon efficiency savings. So standstill funding could actually mean a budget cut of 5.5%. On a budget of say, £100,000, standstill funding over four years could actually mean a budget cut of £22,000 over one fifth of an entire budget.
So, why are local authority arts budgets falling and why are the trends so bad? We suggest there are three causes. First, the arts are non-statutory. This means that when local authorities have to make budget cuts, the arts are an easy target non-statutory, comparatively small and soft; few votes lost there then. Second, some commentators claim that recent re-jigging of the local government finance system led to a North/South divide in funding settlements as part of a government initiative to address poverty and deprivation in Northern areas. This resulted in double-digit council tax increases in some Southern authorities well above inflation. Thirdly, this led to the pensioners revolt and a resultant government sensitivity over the annual council tax increase putting more pressure on local authority budgets and services.
The Local Government Act of 2003 introduced the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) for local authorities with an emphasis on delivering efficient, high-quality, core public services and a name and shame scoring system. This has been accompanied by an increasingly directed local government funding system. For example, the Governments drive to improve education has meant in some cases that all local government budget increases have gone to education, leaving nothing for other services. Some see these and similar instances as being nothing less than a creeping centralisation of local government. And the new Local Public Service Agreements seem to corroborate this.
One way of addressing the issue is simply to raise it. Another way is to work with the tools of government. A high CPA rating gives local authorities financial flexibility and the CPA rating is based, increasingly, on meeting performance indicators. nalgao has been active in contributing to discussions on a new set of national performance indicators for the arts, to be phased in by 2008. So, when your local government arts officer talks to you about how your organisation can contribute to the CPA score through performance indicators and they will please, dont dismiss them as a cold clinical bureaucrat. They are just trying to protect their arts budget and yours.
Paul Kelly is Joint Vice Chair of nalgao and Principal Arts Officer, Plymouth City Council. These issues are explored at length in 'Arts At The Heart', the nalgao magazine.
e: nalgao@aol.com