NPOs to share budget cut pain

Core funding to all of Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) will be reduced by equal proportions in response to DCMS cuts to the arts budget over the next two years. All organisations will face a loss of 1% in 2013/14 and a further 2% in 2014/15, to enable ACE to achieve the £11.6m reduction in spending required by the Government during the current 3-year spending budget. But the Arts Council has warned that “This approach does not set a precedent for our approach to our next investment process” and it is widely expected that this is only an interim approach to the public spending squeeze. In 2011, ACE made it clear that it does not favour an “equal pain for all” approach.