Smaller regional teams within a unified structure will result from a major reorganisation agreed by the MLA partnership (Museums, Libraries and Archives). Funding to the nine separate regional MLAs will be scaled back to prepare for a single structure, based principally in Birmingham, from April 2009.
The move aims to lower costs and channel more funding into front-line cultural activities. MLA Chairman Mark Wood said, “We are confident that the end result will be a better way of ensuring effective local delivery of national policy.” However, Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association, said that the sector could lose knowledge and expertise as up to 15 jobs could be lost in each region. He added that “over five years into this groundbreaking body, all the sector would like is a degree of credibility and sustainability”.