Brassed off over funding for opera ‘luvvies’

New figures show that opera is in line to receive £347.4m during the five years of the current Parliament compared with £1.8m for brass bands.

Cash for the bands has increased from £75,521 in 2010-11 to £550,495 in 2013-14, while opera has seen a drop from a 2012-13 high of £80.9m to £65.8m in 2013-14.

Shipley MP Philip Davies, who is a member of the backbench Culture, Media and Sport Committee, insisted he was pleased the “woeful” funding for brass bands had been alleviated but said the issue symbolised concerns in the North about Arts Council funding.

The Tory MP noted the overwhelming majority of funding given to opera is for London and the South East, adding that Yorkshire MPs held a long-standing concern that brass bands have not been getting a “fair lick of the saucepot”.

Mr Davies, who unearthed the figures via a parliamentary question, said: “I think perhaps there is a worry that, in effect, the middle class lobby at the Arts Council are keen to fund the things that middle class luvvies like. That’s a concern.”

Mr Davies’s comments come a month after the Yorkshire Post reported worries raised by South Yorkshire MPs about the lack of funding available to support village bands.

In 2011-12 the Arts Council allocated £26m to the Royal Opera House in London alone, but just £23,000 to Brass Bands England, which supports 458 bands nationwide.

Penistone and Stocksbridge MP Angela Smith said that the county’s bands faced a losing battle over the relatively miniscule pot of funding with the substantial brass band movement in Wales.

She said the likes of “grassroots” bands in High Green, Penistone, Chapeltown and Stannington constantly had to fight for their survival.

Mr Davies said, although Yorkshire derived some benefit from the funding of opera because of Opera North’s base in Leeds, there remained a pronounced North-South imbalance.

“The overwhelming majority of that funding is for London and the South East and I just think, even though I am pleased to see the woeful funding for brass bands has been slightly alleviated... the question symbolises an issue many people in the North have with the relative funding of the Arts Council.

“Brass bands are really an essential part of the local community all over the country, particularly for people like us in the North.

“In Bradford, where I am, we are particularly proud of the Black Dyke Brass Band. They provide an awful lot of pleasure and are also an essential part of the local community.

“The recognition brass bands deserve is not always given so I’m delighted the Arts Council has recognised there’s a problem by increasing the funding.

“The other thing, I don’t really want to pigeon-hole things, but brass bands may be perceived as working class and opera as middle and upper class things.”

The Arts Council was unavailable for comment yesterday.