Local authority museums will be on the receiving end of some of the harshest cuts revealed in last month’s spending review.

Although the 15% cut for the Renaissance programme and for national museums was not as bad as some had feared, swingeing cuts of 28.4% over four years for local authorities have led to concern.

Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association, said English local authority museums had reasons to be fearful. “It is a huge cut, and history suggests they will go for soft targets. A lot of museums will be under threat.”

Bill Ferris, chairman of Association of Independent Museums and chief executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard, said that institutions that rely on visitor income should be worried.

“The effect of the CSR on people’s ability to go out is of concern, particularly as it is combined with a reduction in tourism budgets and local authority budgets. I think we will see local authority and independent museums going out of business.”

As part of the restructure of Renaissance, hubs will be replaced by core museums, and the functions of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council will transfer to another body, widely assumed to be Arts Council England. Roy Clare the chief executive of the MLA, said that the new core museums should be in place by 2012.

“We don’t yet know how many core museums there will be; there are 16 to 17 contenders and my hunch is that it will be less than that.”

He added that the criteria for core museums would be the strength of collections, how they work with audiences, and the scale of their ambition.

Cuts at a glance
  • Renaissance in the Regions: 15% over four years from £45.567m in 2011 to £43.914m in 2014.
  • Arts Council England: 29.6% from £387.728m in 2011 to £349.392m 2014. Also asked to cut administration costs by 50%.
  • Local authorities: 7.1% cut each year for the next four years
  • National museums: 15% cut to all English national museums and galleries over four years.
  • English Heritage: 32% cut over four years, from £114.742m in 2011 to £96.962m in 2014.
  • DCMS: Core budget cut by 41% from £1.4bn to £1.1bn over four years.
  • Devolved nations: headline figures have been given for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; culture budgets expected later this year.