Scottish government asks national companies to prepare for cuts

Published Thursday 29 July 2010 at 16:25 by Thom Dibdin

Scottish arts organisations are bracing themselves for significant budget cuts over the next three years, although they are unlikely to be as deep as those inflicted in England.

Scotland’s five national performing companies - Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the National Theatre of Scotland, the RSNO and the SCO, have all been asked to prepare scenarios to show how they would be effected by cuts of 3%, 7% or 10%, if they were imposed in the next spending review.

The companies have received a joint income of £24 million a year since they became directly funded by the Scottish government in 2007, giving 1,939 performances to a combined audience of more than a million people. The Scottish government will announce its next spending review in November.

Meanwhile, the chief executive and chairman of the newly formed Creative Scotland - successor body to the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen - have said that they want the body to be seen as a promotional and development agency for the creative industries

Speaking at CS’s first public event, chief executive Andrew Dixon told an audience of more than 200 members from the creative community that the agency would no longer be “an organisation that just hands out money”.

The agency, which currently has a £60 million budget to administer, is to review its £18m core funding to the 52 “foundation” companies. It is set to pursue radical new funding policies as it attempts to boost the cultural sector in the face of public spending cuts. One of these will be to devolve spending decisions to other arts organisations while trying to increase private funding and sponsorship.

Arts organisations and regional bodies are to be asked to share resources and form strategic alliances for major initiatives, instead of relying on direct funding from CS. Dixon also indicated that direct funding for new Scottish film productions would stop. Instead, the agency will find ways to support initiatives that nurture new talent and help film production companies.

Scottish arts bodies had already been planning for cuts. The national performing companies were committed to finding 2% efficiency saving a year, in line with Scottish government policy for public funds, before the current exercise.

Dixon is also adamant that CS is well-prepared for spending cuts. Its creation has already lead to a 20% reduction in staff numbers, while arts organisations had also been asked to plan for budget cuts over the past five months. He points out that Scottish ministers are supportive of the new body, which has taken seven years to come into being, and understand that the arts are essential to the Scottish economy.