The BBC website ponders what impact the new government will have on arts and culture. Dreary stuff such as the bill for the London Olympics, radio/TV regulation and the BBC licence fee all loom large. But also, down at the bottom of the page, mention that…
“Arts spending will also come under scrutiny as government departments are told to make cuts … £66m of savings”
by site admin
15 May 2010 at 03:46
It now seems that £60m of this figure was already committed to, in the last Labour budget.
by site admin
25 May 2010 at 10:14
Turns out the headline figure is £88m. But that includes £27m to be shaved off the cost of the London Olympics. So it’s basically the £60 of cuts that Labour was committed to anyway (but was too timid to implement before an election), plus a probably-healthy trimming of the Olympics budget.
Arts Council England will have to shave £19 million of cuts this year. According to the Stage, Arts Council England has “warned that it cannot guarantee the the cuts” – a dangerous position to take when we have a Government in axe-swinging and abolishing mood, I’d say…