Industry applauds DCMS shake-up

Published Thursday 5 July 2007 at 12:30 by Alistair Smith

Industry leaders have welcomed Gordon Brown’s complete overhaul of the upper echelons of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has seen rising star James Purnell appointed as the new secretary of state.

As part of the incoming prime minister’s shake-up of senior government, Purnell takes over from Tessa Jowell, who has been made Minister for the Olympics and London, in what is effectively a demotion.

Meanwhile, culture minister David Lammy has been replaced by Margaret Hodge, and also takes a downward step to become Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Gerry Sutcliffe takes over the sport brief. However, no one will replace Shaun Woodward in charge of creative industries when he leaves to take up the post of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Purnell’s appointment has been greeted with optimism, with the choice of a young minister known to be highly motivated, active and ambitious felt to indicate that Brown wants to give greater weight to an office that has sometimes been regarded as a post for politicians nearing the ends of their careers. He is also seen by many to be the right person to address the challenges set for the department following its recent mixed capability review and help the department punch above its weight in Whitehall.

National Campaign for the Arts director Louise de Winter welcomed Purnell as a politician who was clearly “on the up”. She added: “He has a knowledge and understanding of the arts that we hope will be used to the sector’s advantage in these final few months before the Comprehensive Spending Review settlement.

“It was also interesting to note Hodge’s appointment. We have yet to see the details of the ministerial responsibilities, but note that the number of ministerial posts in the department has fallen from four to three. We hope that this does not signal any loss in status in the government.”

Purnell arrives from the Department of Work and Pensions, where he served as a minister. As well as having previously worked at the DCMS, Purnell was special cultural advisor to Number 10 from 1997 to 2001, while Chris Smith was culture secretary. He is understood to have been heavily involved with the budgetary gains made by Smith for the arts during that period. He was also central to the project to set up media regulator Ofcom and has previously served as head of corporate planning at the BBC.

A Parliamentary source told The Stage: “He is very talented and was widely expected to get the gig. If there is one thing that could cause some concern, it’s that he could be seen as another BBC insider. On the arts front, with the CSR coming up, if he’s got any sense he’ll realise that for a small amount of money he can avert a major row with the arts world and he’ll need to convey that to Gordon Brown.”

Prior to joining government, Purnell sat on the board of the Young Vic and is known to be close friends with Lyric Hammersmith director David Farr. He is also believed to have been involved behind the scenes in negotiations to safeguard the future of Battersea Arts Centre earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Tories have announced a similar shake-up in their shadow cabinet. Jeremy Hunt has replaced Hugo Swire as shadow culture secretary. Ed Vaizey remains shadow culture minister.