PwC study warns of 'economic harm' to ENO if it relocates

Plans to move English National Opera (ENO) out of London could result in lower audience numbers, reduced income and possible closure, a report by consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has warned.

ENO is currently considering five cities - Birmingham, Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham - as a new home in order to meet funding conditions imposed by Arts Council England (ACE) for £24m over two years after losing its status as a National Portfolio Organisation.

But, as reported by The Stage, the PwC study warns of a number of "potential pathways of economic harm" if ENO proceeds with the controversial plans.

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The report says ENO is the "largest employer and training ground for British operatic talent in the world", supporting more than 600 full-time jobs and contributing approximately £42.5m to the UK economy in 2022.

In addition, it says ENO visitors bring about £17.8m to the local economy, with £9.3m of this in London, where the average spend per visitor is £98.75.

It goes on to warn that a smaller audience capacity as a result of moving outside of London could lead to a reduction to ENO’s business operations, which in turn would reduce the number of jobs it can support.

"Smaller audiences for ENO performances will mean reduced ticket revenue, and less spending in the local economy associated with visits to the opera, reducing ENO’s overall gross contribution to the UK economy," the report states.

"Similarly, partnerships and co-production opportunities with other global opera companies like New York Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Dutch National Opera and many more rely on the ability of ENO to produce and host operas of a certain size, scale and quality that bring in the audiences and ticket revenue to match and reflect the brand reputation that ENO’s partners expect."

"Moving outside of London risks ENO’s ability to produce the type of product required to retain some of these partners and funders. The loss of a venue like the London Coliseum is a particular factor in this equation, as it has the facilities to support ENO’s production work at its current level, and it is located in close proximity to existing ENO audiences."

'Worst-case scenario'

The report says the worst-case scenario is that relocation renders ENO’s current business model "much less financially viable".

This could, in turn, increase the need for additional public funding or cause ENO to scale back operations substantially, or "shut down all together".

It is currently unclear who commissioned the study. ACE, which has commissioned a separate independent analysis of opera and musical theatre, has confirmed to Arts Professional that it has had no involvement with the PwC publication. 

Arts Professional has approached both ENO and PwC for comment.

A spokesperson for ACE said: "As a condition of receiving a 2% increase to our budget at the 2021 spending review, we were instructed by government in February 2022 to move £24m a year out of the London portfolio of funded organisations by 2025, and spread funding in the capital to more boroughs. 

"Change in how we invested in London was inevitable, and with the budget available to us we had to make difficult decisions between good applications to support all types of cultural work and make sure the spread of this public investment was reaching more people, in more places.

"We have invested £11.46m to support the English National Opera (ENO) in 2023-24. In addition up to £24m is available to the ENO for 2024-26 to support a phased transition to a new artistic and business model, and will include work split between their new primary base and the London Coliseum."