Arts Council must spend more outside London, MPs urge

Yet evidence has shown the region is continually shortchanged when it comes to funding the arts - and now MPs have decided it is time to address the imbalance.

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee today calls upon Arts Council England to end the north-south divide and devote more of its funding to projects outside London.

It comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed that last year, the body gave the equivalent of £41.03 per head for people in London - compared with £13.74 for Yorkshire and the Humber.

The committee’s report, welcomed by many of the county’s arts organisations, also said that any future increase in the taxpayer grant to the organisation should be earmarked for projects outside the M25.

Chairman John Whittingdale said: “The Arts Council generally does a good job in allocating limited resources between many competing demands.

“However, there is a clear imbalance in arts funding in favour of London - which the Arts Council itself admits. This is unfair, as well as limiting access to cultural opportunities and enjoyment across the country.

“We heard evidence of well thought out proposals to help redress the balance, starting for example with lottery funding. We welcome the efforts already being made by the Arts Council to shift funding outside of London but would like to see this done faster.”

The committee said redistributing the funds could be achieved “in a timely fashion without threatening London’s world status as a cultural centre”.

But Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield, who has campaigned for change in this area, warned that the Arts Council’s investment plans and strategic funds for 2015 to 2018, published this summer, show the gap between the regions will get worse over the next three years.

He said: “This is not a case of London versus the regions; the whole country would benefit from fairer funding.

“Cities like Sheffield provide platforms for upcoming artists and, if we received fair funding, we could develop more of the artistic and cultural talent that the whole country can enjoy.”

This year a £1 million grant from the Arts Council funding played a crucial role in the refurbishment of Sheffield’s Lyceum theatre.

The committee report also held up Yorkshire organisations such as Leeds-based Northern Ballet and Opera North, as examples of where council’s cash has helped to nurture talent, create original productions and make arts accessible to as many people as possible.

It is hoped that any changes brought about by today’s call for action could help them to expand that work.

Mark Skipper, Northern Ballet’s chief executive, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Arts Council England for their continued investment in the company, but it is a fact that there remains an imbalance between London and the rest of the country.

“Our capital city is the home of our flagship cultural organisations, I understand that, however these organisations also have the opportunity to access other sources of funding in ways which non-London based organisations are less able to do.

You could forgive members of the public for asking questions about this imbalance of subsidy.”