The Stage

Arts council under fire for stockpiling Lottery cash

Published Tuesday 18 October 2005 at 15:45 by Nuala Calvi

Arts Council England, along with other Lottery distributors, has been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee for sitting on millions of pounds of lottery money intended to fund projects.

A report by the committee revealed that £2.4 billion was sitting in National Lottery coffers, including £175 million earmarked for arts council schemes.

Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the committee, said: “Lottery money is for funding worthy community projects, not sitting in a bank account doing nothing. There is no shortage of high-quality projects to fund but the enormous sum of £2.4 billion was stuck in limbo in May of this year - in part because the distributors are too timid to apply their own policies for committing funds. According to those policies, an additional £450 million should have been committed by March 2004”

However, ACE spokesman David McNeill told The Stage: “The arts council has set itself tough targets that in just a three-year period will see our balance reduced from £224m to less than £80m. We’re on target to do that.

“The speed with which projects are able to draw down money from us doesn’t work to the same cycle as the money going in. That’s when you build up a balance. All our money is committed to one project or another but it’s just that the money hasn’t been spent yet. It will be released as projects progress.”