It feels like crunch-time for classical music organisations in England. A 40 per cent real-terms reduction in Treasury funding for Arts Council England since 2010, alongside its Let’s Create strategy shifting funding from traditional institutions to those which deliver on inclusivity and unlocking the creativity of the nation, has led to significant cuts to opera companies and orchestras

The new Labour government appears to recognise that the current system isn’t working and has announced a ‘proper review’ of Arts Council England. Ministers have also called the cut to ENO’s funding ‘crazy’. So, is this an opportunity to tear up the rulebook, and have a fundamental re-think of the structure of public funding and the role of the Arts Council?

This ‘modest proposal’ outlines a possible new approach that would split the currently highly centralised structure into three parts.

National Companies: The Scottish model

National museums such as the National Gallery and the Tate are funded centrally by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This includes institutions located in London, as well as National Museums Liverpool, Imperial War Museum in Salford and Royal Armouries in Leeds.

The last Labour-led Scottish Executive implemented a new approach to arts funding in Scotland in 2007, creating five national companies funded directly by the Scottish Government. Why should a similar approach not be taken in England? It is precisely because national companies require such large amounts of public subsidy, have long planning cycles, and are based mainly in London, that they have come under so much pressure in the latest funding round. The statistic that, on average, Greater London receives £21 per capita of ACE National Portfolio investment, compared to £6 per capita for the rest of the country, is skewed by the inclusion of large-scale organisations with a national remit. This would immediately be resolved by the adoption of the Scottish model.

The organisations in England to which a centrally funded model could apply would include English National Opera, Opera North and Welsh National Opera. To ensure their continued independence, the national companies would be treated as non-departmental public bodies, in the same way as the national museums and Arts Council England itself.

Strategic organisations

This proposal does not recommend the abolition of Arts Council England. Instead, its future role will be that of setting and overseeing a national strategy across all artforms, and managing a portfolio of ‘strategic’, touring and support organisations, alongside its existing function of distributing lottery funds and overseeing music education hubs.

The UK’s orchestras would sit in this category, with the Arts Council taking a strategic approach to ensuring fair and equitable access to orchestras and classical music in all parts of the country.

Regional arts boards: Back to the future

The final change would see the return of the Regional Arts Boards. First created in the 1950s as Regional Arts Associations, these intermediate organisations served as a link between the Arts Council and the regions. They were abolished in 2002, with Arts Council England from then on making decisions on its national portfolio centrally.

In January 2023, Keir Starmer made a speech in which he spoke of the untapped potential that he plans to unleash through a large programme of decentralisation and devolution of power. Borrowing the Brexit campaign’s ‘take back control’ slogan – and promising a ‘Take Back Control’ Bill in a King’s Speech – he pledged to give communities the powers they need to build economic prosperity, enabling them to request new powers over everything from employment support to housing and childcare.

There is no reason why this devolution of power should not include culture. The new Labour Government should restore the concept of Regional Arts Boards, bringing regional offices of Arts Council England and local authorities back into partnership and localising decision-making on arts funding for organisations in the region.

This would also be in line with the Culture Select Committee’s report into cultural placemaking and the levelling-up agenda, which recommended that Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport should consider a new funding system for arts and culture to ensure grassroots organisations do not miss out: ‘We propose a model whereby world class, national cultural institutions, who often receive the most significant levels of public cash, are categorised and allocated funding separately from local and regional cultural institutions’.

At the moment it is unclear how the new Government’s review of Arts Council England is going to be carried out, and what its timetable will be. But let’s hope it gets up and running soon, is not afraid to challenge the status quo, and asks difficult questions about what is wrong with the current system and what the solutions might be.

Mark Pemberton OBE is an arts consultant specialising in the orchestral and performing arts sectors.