Since 2010 the Heritage Lottery Fund has looked at the pattern of local authority spending, and the latest report ‘Local Authority funding for heritage: 2013 update (England and Scotland)’ also reviews six local authorities in more detail.
The Heritage Alliance writes:
For England, it finds that spending by Local Authorities (LAs) on combined heritage (archives, heritage, museums and galleries, and conservation and listed building planning policy) fell from 2010/11 to 2011/12 from £461m to £419m in nominal terms. The biggest drop lay in the conservation and listed building policy subsector – from £44m to £36m. Income generation for combined heritage also fell from £120m in 2010/11 to £107m in 2011/12. The report also analyses expenditure and revenues in the 20 largest (heritage) spending local authorities. In this table Manchester tops the list with a reported current expenditure (2011/12) of just over £15m followed by the City of London with over £12m.
Analysing the case studies, the HLF finds that a sense of fragility persists. The cuts inevitably reduce LA capacity, although some officers feel this is compensated for by more efficient structures and new partnerships. Less strong LAs remain nervous about the future, and even in stronger LAs officers warn that further cuts would inflict real damage.
For further information contact the HLF research team research@hlf.org.uk
HLF article: LINK
