When the Chancellor George Osborne announced in his recent autumn statement that there would be further cuts to Whitehall administration budgets of 1 per cent this year, and 2 per cent next year, it was unclear how, or even if, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) would pass this on to Arts Council England.
Now, a statement from Arts Council England Chief Executive Alan Davey has confirmed that the cuts will impact on the organisation’s grant-in-aid budget from central government. Davey states that this will reduce by £3.9million (one per cent) in 2013/14 and £7.7million (two per cent) in 2014/15.
‘We’ve been informed that the reduction to DCMS budgets announced in the autumn statement will be passed on to the Arts Council,’ said Davey. ‘Our Grant in aid budgets for National Portfolio Organisations and Museum activity will reduce by 1 per cent and 2 per cent.’
Davey went on: ‘We must now look closely at the figures and decide how we will pass these cuts on. We know that some organisations are also having to deal with Local Authority cuts and so the situation is extremely challenging.’
Susan Jones, Director of a-n said: “All NPO organisations are facing uncertainty in income strands. Although ACE’s grant is only 22 per cent of a-n’s overall turnover, even a small cut on promised funding levels will be felt.”
More on a-n.co.uk
Time for arts organisations to grow up
ACE: After short-term cuts, what about long-term resilience?
