English Heritage to axe outreach

English Heritage could close its entire outreach department as part of its post-spending review restructure.

It announced at the end of October that it would be getting rid of 200 jobs and cutting grants by about a third following the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) reducing its budget by 32%.

A spokeswoman for English Heritage said: “We can confirm that, regrettably, there are proposals to disband the outreach team within English Heritage. The consultation process with staff affected by this proposal, and with our trade union colleagues, has started, during which all options will be fully considered.”

There are about 14 members of staff in English Heritage’s outreach department. Since 2003, it has been working with communities who traditionally have not had easy access to heritage.

English Heritage, which receives £136m grant income from the DCMS, was also told in the spending review to reduce its administration budgets by 50% over the next four years and to cut back on non-essential services.

In response, it said it would protect services such as property conservation, existing grant commitments and designation, but would have to make “significant cuts” in other areas.

This includes axing at least 200 of its 1,962 posts, a move that English Heritage said would affect a wide range of services.

A four-year corporate plan, which is to be published in the new year, will provide further details of the redundant posts. English Heritage survived the coalition government’s quango cull in October, when a proposed merger with the Heritage Lottery Fund was abandoned, but the two bodies have been told to avoid the duplication of activities.

Baroness Andrews, chairwoman of English Heritage, said the 32% budget cut was “disappointing” compared with the DCMS’s overall cut. 

“The 32% cut will be exceptionally challenging to manage after years of funding decline – £130m in real-term cuts over 13 years,” she added.

l See diversity feature, p32