‘We are party of the arts’, claim Tories

Published Wednesday 25 June 2008 at 12:35 by Alistair Smith

Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has for the first time outlined what his party’s artistic policies will be if it wins the next general election, in a speech claiming the Tories are now the “natural party of the arts”.

Speaking at the Houses of Parliament, Hunt unveiled proposals to loosen restrictions on philanthropic giving to the arts, cut the amount spent on bureaucracy within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England, and generate an estimated £53 million of extra Lottery arts funding annually.

The most controversial feature of the speech will be his proposal to ‘renew’ the arts council. He highlighted suggestions made by John Tusa in a report to the Conservatives last year, which recommended the larger arts organisations be funded directly by government. While falling short of endorsing this, Hunt did not rule it out.

He said: “That is a very interesting - indeed radical - proposal. We believe that the time is ripe to have a debate about the role of the arts council.

“Do not get me wrong, we support the principle of an arm’s-length body distributing funds, free from political interference. But that has become increasingly blurred. We need to, and we will, have a debate about how the arts council should work alongside a big department of state, and with increasingly confident and autonomous performing arts organisations, a debate that has never happened and is long overdue. It’s not a debate designed to undermine the arts council, but one I hope will lead to its renewal.”

Hunt also used the speech as an opportunity to defend the Tories’ track record and question Labour’s achievements over the last decade.

He pointed to the introduction of the National Lottery, by the previous Conservative administration in 1994, as being responsible for beginning the recent transformation of fortunes in the arts world.

He claimed that Labour was “far from being the party of the arts [but] the party of arts bureaucracy”.

According to Hunt, only 88 pence in every pound spent on arts by the government currently reaches cultural organisations. A Conservative government, he said, would “bear down heavily on the costs of administering arts funding”.

“In the last four years the DCMS, ACE, the MLA [Museums, Libraries and Archives Council] and the Heritage Lottery Fund, have swallowed nearly £400 million in administration costs - £100 million a year,” he said. “Had we controlled the spending on administrations more effectively, reducing it to just 9%, the money would have been there to continue funding every single one of the 158 arts organisations that had their grants withdrawn in January.”

He said the Tories would pass a National Lottery Independence Act, guaranteeing that the Lottery “cannot be raided by politicians for their own pet projects”. He added: “That could potentially mean that on today’s figures, we would generate an additional £53 million for the arts.”

Maximising philanthropy and private giving would also be a focus, but Hunt stressed this would not be at the expense of either Exchequer or Lottery funds. Instead he would look to strengthen gift aid and drive up the levels claimed back by arts organisations. He would repeal “the bureaucracy that prevents cultural organisations from acknowledging the generosity of their benefactors” and investigate ways in which arts donors could be recognised through the honours system. The Tories would also strive to encourage arts organisations to set up endowment funds and develop relationships with potential donors.

Hunt did congratulate the Labour administration on a number of its policies, pledging to continue free admission to museums, as well as acknowledging the government had introduced the social impact of arts to the funding agenda. Labour’s work in arts education was also praised, although Hunt claimed there were too many initiatives within the area.