Ministers under fire over cuts to arts funding

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was branded the “Department of Philistines” yesterday as Labour MPs lined up to accuse the Government of cutting regional arts funding.

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield, claimed fledgling arts groups outside the capital were being “starved” of cash.

Shadow Culture Minister Dan Jarvis also cited a survey of regional playhouses, claiming the Government’s policies were “hitting regional theatre”.

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Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey brushed aside the claims, stating “most of the money that we use to fund arts organisations does go outside London”.

He said: “We did set up Creative England in order to provide a national body to support creative start-ups outside London and that is doing a fine job.”

Speaking during Commons DCMS questions, Mr Sheerman said: “Can I say this is supposed to be the Department for Culture, not the Department of Philistines, and the fact is that if he comes out to real parts of the country outside London ... there are so few grants and money available for start-ups.

“The lifeblood of our cultural heritage and our cultural future comes from new groups starting up; theatre groups, literary groups, across the piece they are starved of resource. That isn’t good enough, what is he doing about it?”

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Mr Jarvis said: “In theatres over the last 12 months, 62 per cent have had to cancel one or more new plays and 54 per cent are commissioning fewer new plays.”

Mr Vaizey replied: “We continue to support new writing, and theatre cuts amount to less than about three per cent overall, so theatre has been well protected.”