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Exclusive: Arts must prepare for 2010 funding cuts, warns Burnham

Published Thursday 8 January 2009 at 10:45 by Alistair Smith

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has alerted subsidised arts organisations that they are not “immune” from a government savings drive in the face of the global financial crisis and that they should start making “contingency plans” in case current funding levels are cut in 2010.

While subsidy levels for the arts world have been set until 2010/11, it is understood that the third and final year of this settlement could be revised in light of the ongoing recession and a desire within central government to trim public spending.

Burnham told The Stage: “In the pre-budget report, the chancellor indicated that further efficiencies would have to be secured in the third year of the spending review. So, all parts of government have to hear that message and live in the real world. Some people may not like it, but the arts has to live in the real world too. Nobody is immune from what is happening.

“Everybody needs, in this time that we’re in, to plan prudently and allow themselves maximum room for manoeuvre, because we all don’t know what 2009 will hold,” he continued. “Because of that, I think you need to make sensible contingency plans. Now that doesn’t mean that’s a message of telling people to put everything on hold - it’s not at all. It’s simply saying that in the climate we’re in, rightly, the Treasury is saying for every pound of investment we receive, we’re going to have to secure maximum return in terms of impact in the economy and making money go further… But also it might be that people have to plan for contingencies and all eventualities.”

While Burnham issued his warning to arts organisations, he also stressed that he would argue “powerfully” with the Treasury to maintain levels of funding for the cultural sector.

He added: “While I am the person who has to relay that message to the arts world, I can also assure the arts world that I will relay an equally vociferous message back to government, which is that the small - relatively small - amount of funding here, produces a huge benefit not [just] socially, educationally, culturally, but also economically. Looking at the figures from Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year, it makes an incredibly cogent case for cultural investment, because it can lift a local economy.

“It can bring in visitors, it can stimulate interest, it can raise the profile.”

When the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review were announced in 2007, then culture secretary James Purnell revealed that Arts Council England would receive a £20 million real-term boost in funding over the next three years. However, much of that increase was to be focused in the third year of the spending period - 2010/11 - meaning that if the DCMS is forced to cut back on its grant to ACE, then the settlement over the next three years could end up being much closer to a flat, inflationary rate.

A spokesperson for Arts Council England said: “Like everyone in the arts sector, the arts council recognises that these are tough times and we share the secretary of state’s commitment to making the case to government about the very real value the arts deliver.

“Public investment in the arts is an investment in the quality of people’s lives across the country.”

• The full interview with Andy Burnham discussing free theatre tickets for young people, arts subsidies and the Government’s track record on the arts can be found on The Stage Podcast.

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