North-South divide rears its head again in arts funding

Someone – it may have been the artistic director of Red Ladder theatre company – compared the waiting to being on death row.

On Wednesday last week, the Arts Council England announced the biggest restructuring of its funding in several decades. The organisation’s own budget had been cut by 29.6 per cent and the Government had told it to reduce the amount it spent on arts groups by 14.9 per cent.

For some there was a stay of execution, for others a full pardon. Yorkshire Dance, Leeds-based East Street Arts and Bradford’s Freedom Studios found themselves brought into the fold and given increased core funding to run their organisations.

For the unfortunate few, there was to be no last-minute reprieve. After allowing the dust to settle, it appears it is not as simple as just a list of the winners and losers. With a few days perspective, the picture is beginning to look a little more complex – and considerably weighted towards the South.

When the Arts Council emails telling companies if they had made it into the list of National Portfolio Organisations and what funding they would receive from 2012 to 2015 – or if indeed they would receive anything – landed last week, the news seemed black and white.

You got the money, you didn’t get the money – you got a cut or you got an increase. Northern Ballet was the first company to question if it really was that straightforward. Even as Cluny Macpherson, the chief executive of Arts Council Yorkshire, was explaining to the Yorkshire Post that funding to the dance company had been cut by 15 per cent, Northern Ballet representatives were on the other line, insisting it was actually a 25 per cent cut.

“The reality is that in 2010-11 we received a total of £3.49m from ACE through accessing a number of funding pots which added to our core funding and which was a true reflection of the income required to run the company, create new work and maintain touring levels,” said a spokesman. “In 2012-13 we have been awarded £2.51m and those funding pots are no longer available, so in real terms we’re down a staggering £1m.” Clearly, 15 per cent cut is bad, a quarter is potentially devastating. The arguments and counter arguments between ACE and Northern Ballet could rage on ad infinitum. However, what came out of the discussions with Northern Ballet was a much more worrying picture of where the money last week was geographically positioned.

Of the Arts Council available funding in the next year of £329.1m, only £27.8m – or eight per cent – will go to Yorkshire. Fair enough, you might think. We are, after all, only one region and the Arts Council has a responsibility to fund companies nationwide.

What sticks in the throat of Northern Ballet is that London receives £163.9m – or 49.8 per cent of all that funding. Almost half of the money the Arts Council will spend next year, and over the next three years, will go to London. Even taking into account the fact that the capital has more cultural houses than other regions, this seems more than a tad unfair.

That’s not all.

A spokesman for Northern Ballet said: “In the dance sector, 57 companies have been funded and of those 19 are in London and they have received 61 per cent of the funding available to dance. London has 15 per cent of the population, Yorkshire 10 per cent. It is hard not to feel the North-South divide is a reality.”

Unsurprisingly, ACE has defended its funding decisions.

A spokesman said: “Our investment in London is focused on the international, national and the local. The capital acts as an international platform for UK artists, with world-class venues like the Southbank Centre and the National Theatre.

“The strong and vibrant artistic community and infrastructure makes it a national hub for a large volume of touring companies or organisations that have a national impact and reach across all artforms. In the 2009-10 Annual Submission for Regularly funded organisations, 37 per cent of London’s portfolio (101) was identified as touring organisations. We therefore make no apology for continuing to invest in London – and in turn in our national arts infrastructure and our international reputation.”

As with Arts Council Yorkshire and Northern Ballet there is argument and counter claim – there is, however, no arguing with the figures. And to discover that almost half of all spend on the arts from 2012 to 2015 will go to London will make more than just Northern Ballet staff irate. Some might say heads should roll.

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