The Stage

Arts future depends on DCMS allocation of extra £200m

Published Thursday 15 July 2004 at 10:05 by Ruth Gillespie

Arts organisations have warned that the future of the theatre industry depends on how the Department for Culture, Media and Sport allocates its 2.3% real term increase in funding, revealed in chancellor Gordon Brown’s three-year spending review.

The National Council for the Arts welcomed the extra £200 million as necessary to secure the large investments made by the government in recent years but said this was tempered by the need to wait and see how it would be distributed by the DCMS among the various sections in the department.

Arts Council England chairman Christopher Frayling previously warned that unless ACE received a real term increase in funding, plus a further £20 million, clients will face a return to the stop/start funding policies of the nineties.

Victoria Todd, director of the NCA, said: “While we are pleased with the chancellor’s announcement, the arts has a huge amount to contribute to the government’s social agendas, contributions that give high returns on investment. It is essential that government departments work together to ensure full advantage is made of this.”

Last month culture secretary Tessa Jowell hinted that most departments expected to receive only a 2.5% increase in their funding, which would be reflected in the amount passed on by the DCMS to the arts council.

While in line with inflation, this does not reflect above-inflation increases in wages and taxes paid by employers such as National Insurance. She claimed, however, that Tory counter-proposals would cost the DCMS £70 million a year.

According to Equity’s Martin Brown, the union plans to lobby the DCMS in the run-up to its allocation announcement, which is expected some time this autumn. It will then focus on ACE to ensure the theatre industry receives sustained funding over the three-year period.

A spokesman for the DCMS said: “Although we have a settlement for the department for the period up to 2007/08, we have yet to divide up that money between the different areas in the department. It may take quite a few weeks before we will be able to say what effect it will have on each section.”