Newcastle City Council announced today that it will not be making the 100% cut to its culture budget which was proposed some weeks ago. Instead it has, leader Nick Forbes said, found £600,000 annually to go into a “pot” which will support the city’s cultural organisations and which, he added, the council will not control. The money will come from savings elsewhere in the council’s budget and from interest due on a loan to Newcastle Airport.
Forbes said that it would be open for businesses and other organisations, as well as individuals, to contribute to the pot. He also suggested that some of the high profile celebrities and arts people might be prepared to make a contribution themselves.
There will also, he added be a £9m fund set aside for venues’ capital projects.
The proposed cuts were first revealed by former Northern Stage artistic director Erica Whyman in November and a public consultation was announced a week later.
Earlier this week Labour’s Shadow Culture Minister and Deputy Leader Harriet Harman intervened in the row and said that the 100% cut will not go ahead.
The new fund, to which organisations will have to apply for three-year grants as they currently have to for Arts Council funding, will begin operation in 2016. There will be a 15% reduction in the current level of funding next year and a further reduction in 2015.
The original proposals would have seen the entire culture budget of £1.5m cut, which would affect, among others, Dance City, Live Theatre, Northern Stage and the Theatre Royal. The new pot represents a 60% cut and the reduction in 2014 will be £225,000.
It was also announced today that the City Hall, a major concert venue for decades, will also be saved from closure as the council revealed that it is in talks with the Theatre Royal to develop cooperation between the two venues while the council will fund essential maintenance and repair work.