News – CSR sustains arts funding

DCMS settlement greeted with caution by arts and culture sector.

The results of the Governments long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and its allocation for the arts have been given a cautious welcome across the sector. Announcing what it described as a “generous funding settlement”, the DCMS said that the Review provided an increase in its resource budget from £1.6 billion in 2007/08 to £1.8 billion by 2010/11, allowing it to “maintain funding in real terms for the arts, museums and galleries, within this maintaining free access to national museums and contributing to the Cultural Olympiad”.
Following the announcement, James Purnell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, revealed that an extra £50m would be going to Arts Council England (ACE), whose funding is set to rise from £417m this year to £467m in 2010/11  a real-terms increase year-on-year of 1.1%, or 12% in cash terms across the whole period. Grant aid to Englands national museums and galleries will rise from £302m this year to £332m in 2010/11, an increase slightly above inflation. Describing the announcements as fantastic news, ACE Chief Executive Peter Hewitt said that the Government had acted on the case we have made for the arts.

However, voices of concern were raised over the focus on the Olympics and the Cultural Olympiad, with the DCMS announcing a capital expenditure programme of over £2bn during the 200811 period, including the Departments contribution to venues and supporting infrastructure costs of the 2012 Olympic Games. Sir Simon Milton, Chairman of the Local Government Association, described the Review as containing the worst settlement for local government in a decade, concerns echoed by Lorna Brown, Chair of nalgao (National Association of Local Government Arts Officers), who said, At first sight the DCMS settlement looks positive& but as much of the funding is committed to plans around the 2012 Games, until the fog clears we wont know what it means. Also questioning the terms of the settlement was Mark Pemberton, Director of the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), who said, The crucial declaration in the Review is that the 2007 CSR maintains funding for the arts and museums and galleries at least in line with inflation. Of primary concern is what is meant by inflation. The governments preferred measure of inflation is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). CPI is currently running at 1.8%, so it is possible that annual increases in ACE funding will be of this order. This, of course, is significantly less than the Retail Price Index, the measure more closely related to actual living costs, which is currently running at 4.1%… there will without doubt be pressure on budgets over the next three years. The ABOs concerns were reflected by Louise de Winter, Director of the National Campaign for the Arts, who said, Our relief at the announcement has to be tempered in the light of these other issues: the cost of living index is higher than inflation, and the impact of the diversion of £135m from UK Arts Councils Lottery funds to the Olympics will& continue to cut deep. Art Fund Director David Barrie said, the reality is that after all the investment of the past 10 years we are seeing a significant shift away from the arts towards sport and in particular to fund the Olympics. This is not good news for national museums and galleries, whose costs have been rising much faster than the retail price index.