The Stage

Vaizey attacks “rushed” free theatre tickets for youngsters initiative

Published Tuesday 11 November 2008 at 16:40 by Alistair Smith

Conservative shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey has spoken out against the government’s recently launched initiative offering free theatre ticket to under-26 year olds, claiming the project had been designed “on the hoof”.

Vaizey delivered the keynote address at the Theatrical Management Association’s Winter Event at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, in which he laid out Tory arts policy and launched an attack on the free theatre ticket initiative. The offer was announced by culture secretary Andy Burnham at the Labour Party Conference in September. Under the proposals, £2.5 million has been earmarked to generate one million free tickets for youngsters across England.

Speaking after the TMA event, Vaizey told The Stage: “While we would encourage greater participation in theatres, I have a huge problem with this initiative. I believe it was rushed through to give Andy Burnham something to say at the Labour Party conference. The £2.5 million is obviously not enough money for it to be a meaningful initiative and the implementation of it is being designed on the hoof. The arts council has been left holding the baby, forced to devise how the scheme would work and try to raise private money to support the scheme.”

He said he felt that the concept was potentially a good one, but he feared that the government had scuppered its chances of success by rushing it through.

“What really worries me is that if the initiative doesn’t go well, it will damage any attempt to do something similar in the future, because people will say ‘we tried that and it didn’t work’,” he added. “If they had spent another six months thinking it through they could have put in a long-term effective initiative.”

Also at the TMA event, Vaizey stressed that while he could not guarantee levels of funding for the arts under a Tory government beyond the current spending round because of the recession, he would argue their case with the Treasury, if the party is successful at the next general election.

“No one can promise sustained arts funding during a recession, but my argument to the Treasury would be that the arts are particularly important during a recession when people are gloomy,” he said. “They are a drop in the ocean of government spending and therefore to support the arts in a downturn is not very expensive, whereas cuts can cause long term damage.”

Vaizey also said that he was interested in looking at ways that subsidised theatres could work together more using united box office systems, or an online booking portal through which audiences could reserve seats and be given show recommendations.