Birmingham Rep to lose 100% of funding in 'largest local budget cut ever'

B:Music has been supported by a grant from Birmingham City Council of £1,388,000 annually, while Birmingham Royal Ballet has tended to receive about £157,850 a year, and Birmingham Rep received core funding of £158,000 in 2022.

Reacting on Twitter/X, playwright Joe White branded the cuts "disastrous" and said: "Fourteen years of austerity and here’s where we are. Birmingham is about to suffer the largest cuts in local authority history, and of course the arts are the first thing to go."

Conductor Andrew Griffiths termed it "horrendous news", adding: "Something like this seems to happen almost daily right now. These really are bleak times in the arts."

Writer and dramaturg Luke Barnes said "a city without culture is just a massive shopping centre", while director Erica Whyman alluded to similar cuts across being made across the UK, writing: "Christ. On it goes."

Director and choreographer at Birmingham Rep Vivi Bayliss commented: "A career in the arts really does feel hopeless right now. Not booking enough gigs to be sustainable. Arts Council England success at an all-time low so [one] can’t make [one’s] own work. Facilitation work at risk from the below. I don’t know what else to try."

Council tax in the local authority bounds will rise by 21% over the coming two financial years, while council funding for all community centres will end, and the Children’s, Young People and Families budgets face a £51.5 million cut.

The council is also preparing to cut up to 600 jobs and institute fortnightly bin collections, in what think tank the Audit Reform Lab declared the biggest budget cut ever made by a council.

Leader of Birmingham City Council, the Labour Party’s John Cotton, said he wanted to "apologise unreservedly" for the significant spending reductions, admitting: "We have no alternative than to face these challenges head on."

He drew attention to the "national crisis in local government finance", which can be traced to central government cuts to local authority funding following austerity. The Local Government Association claims councils have faced a 27% real-terms cut in core spending power since 2010.

Late last month, communities secretary Michael Gove announced England’s local authorities would receive a £600 million funding boost from the government following warnings of further bankruptcies.

It comes as Somerset Council approved £35 million of funding cuts to services including arts and culture provision, as it faces a £100 million shortfall.

The council’s 2024/25 budget was voted through on February 20, with £420,000 set to be cut from the county’s three most prominent theatre and entertainment venues: the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton, and Westlands Entertainment Centre.

The council’s leader Bill Revans called the cuts "heartbreaking".