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Subject to clarification on a range of technical details, the Regional Arts Boards (RABs) around the UK have agreed in principle to transfer into the Arts Council of England (ACE), and a new single organisation will come into being on March 31, 2002.
The new organisation will comprise nine regional offices, matching the Government?s regional boundaries, each supported by a Regional Council with increased decision-making powers. According to ACE, more funding decisions will be made regionally, and the organisation?s national office will only undertake work that cannot be done at regional level. The Chairs of the new 15-member Regional Councils will sit on the National Council of the new organisation. Six of the council members in each region will be local authority representatives. A working party involving local authorities, the RABs and ACE has proposed that 2002/3 should be considered an interim year, and local authorities are being urged to continue to reserve the same level of funding for shared priorities with the regional arts bodies during this period while potential funding and partnership models are developed.