From thestage.co.uk

Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey has written to all regularly funded organisations telling them to prepare for at least a 10% reduction in their subsidy next year.

The warning comes soon after ACE was itself told by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to model for cuts of either 25% or 30% to its funding over the next four years. ACE has said that the bulk of these cuts will not be handed over to RFOs immediately, but they should still expect a minimum cut of 10% to their 2011/12 grants.

In the letter, Davey explains: “In June, along with all DCMS funded bodies, we received a letter from [culture secretary] Jeremy Hunt asking us to model reductions of 25- 30% over four years to our funding programme. This shows just how tough this spending review will be, but these figures are not set in stone. The arts council is arguing to minimise the cuts ‚Äì and we will argue that any cut needs to be managed intelligently, and in a way that protects the achievements of the last 15 years. In particular we need to be sure that whatever cuts we do get do not all take place in the first year of a four-year cycle. This would be doubly damaging.”

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