Arts: Funding

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for initiating this debate and for reminding us of the importance of free admission to museums and galleries, and that public funding of the arts costs only 17 pence per person per week. However, I feel that the distribution of public spending on arts and culture in England is too heavily weighted towards London. In the next financial year of DCMS funding, three-quarters will be spent in London. Of Arts Council funding in 2011-12, £21.92 will be spent in London per head of population compared with just £3.44 in the rest of England.

I fully understand that London has many centres of artistic excellence and that people from all over the UK can benefit from them but that presumes that people, particularly families, can afford it—and, of course, the reality is that not many can. Therefore, I find the difference in spending between London and the English regions stark. It is even more so when lottery funding and private sector sponsorship are taken into account. An examination of lottery grants to arts and heritage over the past 15 years shows that 31 per cent of the total sum has gone to London, yet Londoners play the lottery less than any other English region, with only 32 per cent of households participating. In the north-east—here I declare my interest as a councillor in Newcastle and a board member of the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust—56 per cent of households participate, with an average spend 60p higher than the average spend in London.

In addition, 75 per cent of all private sector sponsorship goes to London, so this is a plea for the English regions. Just last week the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose third home has been in Newcastle since 1977, announced that it would not be coming this year because it could not afford it, to the massive disappointment of thousands of theatregoers, but this is the consequence of the way arts public funding works. I sincerely hope that this can be addressed so that the RSC returns for the long term in 2012.

I turn briefly to film and media. Regional funds have been lost with the decision to close the regional development agency. Here I declare my interest as a board member of One North East. National funding is being lost because of the abolition of the UK Film Council with the regional screen agencies. Although there will be a replacement in Creative England through the British Film Institute, there are suggestions that Creative England will receive a reduced amount of grant in aid, compared to the old screen agency network, and will need to use most or all of its grant to cover its establishment costs and overheads, leaving very little to distribute. The film sector needs urgent advice on its future funding levels. The problem is that, with its existing agency abolished and replacement agents wrapped up in their own internal change, the sector is being told very little.

The fundamental changes being made in the management and distribution of funds for film in the UK are complex and will clearly take time to be resolved. However, in the mean time, the immediate danger is that while these new structures are put in place, a vacuum is opening up which could threaten the UK’s film infrastructure in the coming year. Therefore, with just a few weeks to go to the start of the new financial year, I hope that the Minister can clarify what transitional funding arrangements for 2011-12 DCMS has planned for the numerous small independent arts cinema and film festivals across the country that make up the real heart of Britain’s specialised film culture. I should like my noble friend to reassure us that DCMS and the Arts Council will remember that England has regions which need fair and equitable treatment.