Arts organisations urge Brown to address Olympics concerns

Published Thursday 24 May 2007 at 14:10 by Nuala Calvi

Leaders of Britain’s largest performing arts unions, trade associations and lobby groups have taken the unprecedented step of drawing up a joint letter to chancellor Gordon Brown warning of the dire consequences of the Olympics Lottery raid for the cultural sector.

Seven organisations representing the vast majority of employers, performers, artists and technical staff are pressing Brown to address as a “matter of urgency” the precarious financial situation for the arts, which is set to lose an extra £137 million to the 2012 Games.

They warn that the cuts, along with an expected poor funding settlement in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, amount to a “return to the stop-go approach to arts funding that proved so damaging during the nineties”.

The letter from Equity, Bectu, the Musicians’ Union, the Theatrical Management Association, Dance UK, the National Campaign for the Arts and the Independent Theatre Council, states: “All our organisations supported the Olympics bid. At the time, we had no reason to suppose that the net cost of the Games would fall disproportionately on the performing arts and other elements of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport budget.

“If it should indeed do so, it would be both illogical and profoundly discouraging to everyone in the cultural sector.

“Whether in your last few weeks as chancellor or in your new role as prime minister, we urge you to address these concerns as a matter of urgency.”

NCA director Louise de Winter said government claims that the arts would be paid back once land and buildings were sold off after the Olympics were wishful thinking and that the money taken from the Lottery needed to be made up this year in the CSR.

“The sector needs this money now, not least because how on earth they expect us to run any kind of Cultural Olympiad when we don’t have a properly funded sector, I don’t know,” she said.

Arts Council England has already announced a 30% cut in its Grants for the Arts programme, largely because of the transfer of Lottery cash.

TMA chief executive Richard Pulford told The Stage: “One of the biggest impacts of this is going to be on touring productions, which are entirely funded by Grants for the Arts. Touring shows simply won’t happen. Funding applications are already being turned down.”

Equity general secretary Christine Payne warned that theatres would be forced to stop programming big productions and would have to cut cast sizes and actors’ wages.

Their comments echoed those of Labour’s own former culture secretary Chris Smith, who last week accused the government of a “serious error of judgement” over the Lottery raid and said that it was difficult to underestimate the impact the decision would have on the cultural sector.

However, a DCMS spokesman said: “We don’t recognise Lord Smith’s tale of woe. The transfer of funds will be strictly time limited and will amount to no more than 5% of the sector’s expected income across the period.

“Lottery support has never been more than the icing on the arts funding cake - core investment is at an all time high, 75% up in real terms over the last ten years.”