Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have hit back at accusations by shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt that they spend too much on administration.
Speaking last month at a one-day conference on the future of the arts, Hunt said ACE spends 11 per cent of its income on administration and the HLF 13 per cent.
But both organisations have rejected Hunt’s figures. ACE said it spends about 7.5 per cent of its total income on administration, and this will fall by 1 percentage point from April after its organisational review is implemented.
HLF chief executive Carole Souter said: “Our running costs in 2008-09 were 6.9 per cent of our grant payments. We have always been careful to keep costs down and have reduced them by about 25 per cent in real terms since 2003.”
Hunt said the Conservative Party would introduce a target of 5 per cent for administration costs.
