The letter to English Heritage (EH) from the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) informing EH of the new funding regime has been released, and includes directions on allocations and cutbacks, and encouragement to use charitable donations and philanthropy to fill the deficits, all ‘to give [EH] the best opportunity to plan for what will be a very challenging four year period.’
Selected text includes:
‘My overall approach to the Spending Review has been to tackle the challenge in a strategic way, based on four principles:
- cutting waste and inefficiency, stopping lower priority projects and rethinking the role of the state in the sectors in which we operate;
- protecting for the long term our unique cultural, media and sporting assets;
- delivering a safe and successful Olympics in 2012; and
- contributing to the Government’s growth agenda by supporting growth in our sectors and in the wider economy.
The resource and capital grant in aid budget for your organisation will be cut by 32% in real terms. Within this settlement I would like to see you make every effort to ensure that –• English Heritage maximizes its effectiveness by focussing its activities in areas where it provides a distinctive service and reducing any areas of overlap with other bodies;
• total funding for planning advice, grants for heritage at risk and the conservation and maintenance of sites in English Heritage’s care are protected and have a cut of no more than 15% in real terms;
In addition, within this settlement I expect-
• administration is cut by 50% in real terms;
• an increase in self generated income, and;
• the continuation of the joint research and survey programme (CASE and Taking Part). £50,000 will be topsliced from your grant in aid budget every year between 2011-2015 to fund this programme.
I recognise the important role that philanthropy and corporate support already play in your financial planning and operations. I believe there is scope to build on that further through your charitable foundation. The Government will play its part in incentivising private sector support for our cultural heritage over the next four years, and I expect you to strengthen your own fundraising capacity through cultivation of a broad range of donors, business supporters, trusts and foundations. Over time, I hope that legacies and endowments will increasingly help to reinforce the financial resilience of the sector, and we want to work in partnership with you to that end.Finally, we expect that bodies will meet the costs of restructuring. Where there are genuine difficulties, you should contact OCMS to explore options that might be available.…
The approach that I have taken in setting these allocations is to commit most of the Department’s resources to the bodies that we fund, and to keep only very limited funds back at the centre. This necessarily means that I am left with very little flexibility to deal with risk, for example to meet unforeseeable changes in circumstances and priorities that will arise, particularly in the latter years of the Spending Review period. So, while these allocations set out my firm plans for the next four years, they cannot be immutable, particularly for the third and fourth years.
….Transparency… to replace the performance frameworks that you may have been used to in the past, English Heritage will instead be expected to make information available to the public on a range of subjects. This will involve the formulation of an information strategy setting out what will be published and when. Further guidance about what must be included will be given in the funding agreement (which will be issued shortly) but it will incorporate a range of inputs and impact indicators.
Despite the difficult circumstances, this represents a fair settlement with safeguards to protect the cultural cores. My Ministerial Team and I look forward to working with you over the next four years.’
DCMS Publications: LINK
Other letters are available on: LINK
