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Dateline: 11th November, 2007
WMC Rescued The Wales Millennium Centre which, as we reported in October, has been in danger of insolvency, has been rescued by the Wales Assembly Government (WAG). On Wednesday the Heritage Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas announced that the Centre's annual grant will rise to £3.7m and its £13.5m debt will be written off, because, he said, there is "“no prospect of the Centre being able to pay off the £13.5m loan the project received from HSBC”. He added that the rescue plan would not be at the expense of the arts budget or, in particular, of the Arts Outside Cardiff budget. Opposition AMs accepted the necessity for the rescue package but demanded that measures be put in place to prevent any recurrence in future. "It is no good paying off this debt and increasing the revenue support without proper scrutiny of future budgets and financial management," said Conservative Shadow Culture Minister Paul Davies. "We cannot be expected to bail out the Centre every few years, especially using public money." Mr Thomas said that the WAG will be looking at givernance arrangements and that "stretching commercial targets" would be set. "I am confident that it has the potential to do more and to become an ever more potent symbol of what a small but smart nation like Wales can achieve," he added.
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