Theatre Trust director speaks of cuts impact on the industry

The Theatres Trust has just received word that its grant will be slashed by £10,000 starting next April, making it the latest victim of budget cuts in the arts industry. Arts and Cuts spoke to Director Mhora Samuel about the latest developments and their impact on theatres in England.

“The Theatres Trust receives an annual grant of £55,000 from English Heritage. It has remained at this level since 1994 and equates to an annual reduction in subsidy as our grant has not risen with inflation. English Heritage has indicated that that our grant will reduce to £45,000 from 1^st April 2011. This is the third year in a three-year funding agreement and we have yet to hear what arrangements are to be made from 2012 onwards.

“This grant is awarded towards delivery of our work as a statutory consultee in the planning system. By law local authorities are required to consult the Trust on planning applications concerning land upon which there is a theatre.  In this way we are able to advise local authorities on development proposals that could have an impact on the continued existence of theatre buildings and securing their future use as theatres.

“In offering advice and working towards protecting theatres, The Theatres Trust’s work covers the arts, heritage and design sectors in England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland.  In the developed nations respective governments and assemblies are beginning to assess the level of grant aid they can provide to these sectors.  All are looking to make cuts or make standstill grant allocations to theatres.

“In England the immediate impact has been on the level of grant from DCMS to the Executive Arms Length Bodies.  Arts Council England’s cuts in 2011/12 are now known and we now know the level to which it will be passing on cuts to theatres that are currently regularly funded organisations.  On a strategic level, economic, social and educational investment has been lost and there have been some significant casualties such as Creativity Culture & Education which will lose its entire grant.  English Heritage has also received a very significant cut.

“The DCMS decided to cut its grant to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) entirely and the Department of Communities and Local Government has cut its entire grant to Planning Aid.  CABE, English Heritage and Planning Aid have significant advisory roles, which support local artists, local communities and help to generate inward investment. The future provision of these services is under review.

“Most significantly it is the cuts included in the CLG settlement on local authorities that will be felt by many theatres, particularly where theatres are owned and operated by local authorities. They are reviewing if they should continue to own and operate them as before.  Local authorities are also responsible for Planning and Arts Development and many are responding to the cuts by restructuring, not reappointing posts and reducing departmental resources.

“This reduction of resources is in the context of an increased focus on localism and neighbourhood planning and an emphasis on the Big Society where communities and individuals are being encouraged to have a wider engagement. Local authorities are expected to support these developments.

“In this climate theatres are having to respond to sudden major reductions in funding and support and advice, and are refocusing their businesses to become more self sustaining. For some, this will mean falling on reserves whilst re-evaluating their business activities. For others, who find themselves facing an uncertain future there could well be no choice but to close, merge or sell assets.

“If the cuts had been introduced over a longer time period it would have provided more time for theatres to adapt.  Given that the level of funding the Government provides towards arts, heritage and design is amongst the lowest across its departments, the difference in cost terms to the Government as a whole would have been minimal, but to the arts organisations affected the speed of change is going to be significant to their future resilience.

“If the cuts had been introduced in a more managed way, for example by protecting local authorities contributions to the arts for up to two years, it would have given theatres more time to adapt, make the transition and secure their future and provide a more solid base to replace public funds with new forms of financial support being encouraged by the Government (such as philanthropy).

“We have a small advisory team here at the Trust that advises on all aspects of concern to theatres and we are meeting with community based groups, theatres and local authorities across the country to discuss how they are managing the impact of cuts to local theatres.  We are aiming to secure future use, and helping groups to consider options and ways forward.”

The Theatres Trust can be contacted on 020 7836 8591 or info@theatrestrust.org.uk

Comment from ‘Save the British Film Industry’

Interesting feedback from Jonathan Stuart-Brown of Save the British Film Industry.com

“Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis leads to a better arts set up in the UK and maximises the chance of creative talent being unleashed.

Assetion. Counter-assertion and challenge. Conclusion. Repeat the process. Free, fair, fearless debate.

It is NOT about the name of the quango or the quango office. It is all about the honesty, morality and patriotism of the person in the office and the aggregate group think.

The arts quango industry in the UK has been corrupt to a staggering level for decades but not scrutinised by the real police, the media or nominal watchdogs (often big recipients of public money from those who they were meant to police).

People in The Arts industry do steal, cover up, embezzle, fiddle expenses in a way which an MP would blush, have side companies alongside public money administration jobs where A gives public money to B who gives public money to A.

Literally hundreds of millions have just been stolen or misappropriated…and no consequences as it is “art”.

The more the quangos and level of bureaucracies, the harder it is for anyone without a huge attention span and zeal for research to follow. The less scrutiny, the fewer consequences, the greater the corruption.

The Department of Culture is lazy, inept, clueless. Truly imbecilic. Gone are the days top intellects, hard workers and well informed wise people worked in The Department.

The Select Committee could – sadly – put on a farce at The West End without any script other than the evident lack of knowledge, insight, research they display in every Committee hearing.

People lie to them without challenge or consequence.

The media takes no notice as it is only mysterious art…and too complicated or boring to follow the money.

Far far far too much depends on personal honesty and integrity in arts quangos from people who learned very bad habits from the others in the industry who do not administer public monies with a straight bat.

Private monies, private patronage…do what you want.

Public monies…administer with great honesty and do not use to self-enrich to enrich family, friends, your own in club.

The only way to achieve the latter in an ever dishonest industry is to ring the changes every two years with people who have handed out public money in arts then prevented from doing so again for five years. It stops the cliques forming.

We could even hand out all public monies via libraries and Youtube pitches with each library volounteer team voting YES or NO. This guarantees wide BIG SOCIETY participation. Not corrupt deals in the dark.

The film industry only exists in the south-east because there are sound stages (the thing which really bring in the billions in inward investment) in west London and part of North London. 300 acres controls the inward investment and a small in club cabal actively lobbies to stop sound stages being built on the literally 200 000 plus acres in the regions which people can not give away. These could become state of the art sets such as sci-fi, pyramids, ancient Rome, Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, New York, Moscow, North Pole, Beijing, medieval castle, jungle etc. These can double as tourist theme parks.

We could have a regular 250 000 people employed in the film industry across the UK and £25 billion a year annual turnover.

However a small cabal wants to prevent it – and the power shift from west London – and regardless of what quango is in power, the cabal is always pulling the strings to stop sound stages being built around the UK.

When sound stages are built around the UK, so the film industry will spread around and lead all private investment in arts, music, culture. But the very quangos set up to achieve it have been staffed by people trying to prevent it.

London would gain in absolute terms but LOSE in relative terms as other regions rose and closed the gap.

Instead of grabbing this point, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron prefer to build a needless train set for £30 billion which they can not play with until 2025.

It is not cuts…as some cuts cut out corruption and cancer, they remove articles.

It is personal morality, true UK wide participation and ethos, and breaking up the in-clubs.

The public monies should be spent on physical infrastructure which attracts inward investment…sound stages and sets around the UK.

But as The Government is truly clueless on this, THEN it is time to pray and pray hard. It will take a miracle.

http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/12/high-time-to-earnestly-seek-divine-help-if-we-want-a-real-uk-wide-british-film-industry-employing-250-000-people-and-25-billion-a-year-for-chancellor-george-osborne/“