Ticket buyers swell arts coffers

Increasing sales of Lottery tickets are boosting projections of Lottery cash for the arts over the next five years. If the projections prove accurate, Arts Council England could see its Lottery fund for 2012/13 end up £33m higher than was estimated at the time of the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010, and by 2016/17 the increases could amount to a total of £160m. The other countries of the UK and the BFI could also see increases. Total funding now expected to go to Arts Council England is £2.3bn over the next four years, combining grant-in-aid and Lottery income.