The Stage

Lammy refuses to rule out further Lottery arts raids

Published Tuesday 12 June 2007 at 15:35 by Nuala Calvi

Culture minister David Lammy has refused to guarantee that arts and heritage will not be hit by further diversions of Lottery cash to fund the Olympics.

Opening a Commons debate on the issue, Liberal Democrats culture spokesman Paul Holmes said the cost of the games was likely to rise again in the next few years, and called for the minister to confirm that any rise would not be financed by another “smash and grab” raid.

Arts organisations are already being deprived of at least £137 million as a result of a decision earlier this year to divert an extra £675 million of Lottery funding to the games. As a result, the Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme has been cut by 35%.

Shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey said arts organisations were being forced to survive on “almost peanuts”, while hundreds of thousands were being spent on initiatives like the Olympics logo.

However, Lammy told MPs it was “disingenuous” to suggest that the cuts would have a shattering effect on the industry, and failed to confirm that there would not be further losses.

He also ignored calls for a guarantee that the sector would have first call on profits from the sale of Olympic properties after 2012.

“I recognise that there is real concern about the impact of the changes to the Olympic budget announced in March,” Lammy said. “It is true that for a limited period of about four years, some Lottery projects that might have gone ahead will have to be postponed or will be unable to go ahead.

“I do not accept the suggestion that that is a smash and grab raid, which sounds more like a Dale Winton programme than reality, or that it has shattered the country’s arts fabric. I believe that we are talking about a huge opportunity for this country.”

The Commons debate follows a similar discussion in the Lords last month, during which Labour’s former culture secretary Chris Smith accused the government of a “serious error of judgement” over the Lottery raid.

In response, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said core investment in the arts was at an all-time high and described Lottery support as just the “icing on the arts funding cake”.