Record lottery ticket sales could bring millions in additional funding for the arts and heritage, according to the latest projections from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Speaking at the annual State of the Arts conference, culture minister Ed Vaizey said the current National Lottery boom could bring £160m in extra funding to Arts Council England (ACE) over the next five years – 14.5% more than previously estimated.
If trends continue, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which is the chief distributor of lottery money to museums, would see its share rise by the same proportion, with £1.42bn expected to be available to the organisation between 2011-12 and 2015-16.
Vaizey told the conference that £2.3bn was now projected to go to ACE by 2016, combining grant-in-aid and lottery income. He said: “We have been able to limit the reduction in arts funding via the arts council to less than 5% in real terms.”
But while the lottery news was welcomed by the cultural sector, Vaizey’s speech was criticised for conflating the arts council’s lottery income with grant-in-aid funding.
One source said: “It’s misleading to add the two together and say the real-term cut is 5%, because the 30% cuts to grant-in-aid still stand.”
Lottery distributors are bound by the “principle of additionality”, which requires that lottery money go towards extra projects outside an institution’s core operational costs.
Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, said: “The cuts made by the DCMS are substantial revenue cuts and lottery money cannot substitute for these.
“Even then, the figures that the minister was using were projected some years into the future, and are not guaranteed income.”
ACE and the HLF are also set to enjoy a boost in April from changes that will see their respective shares of lottery money rise from 16.6% to 20%, as well as the end of the transfer of lottery funding to cover the cost of the Olympic Games.
Speaking at the annual State of the Arts conference, culture minister Ed Vaizey said the current National Lottery boom could bring £160m in extra funding to Arts Council England (ACE) over the next five years – 14.5% more than previously estimated.
If trends continue, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which is the chief distributor of lottery money to museums, would see its share rise by the same proportion, with £1.42bn expected to be available to the organisation between 2011-12 and 2015-16.
Vaizey told the conference that £2.3bn was now projected to go to ACE by 2016, combining grant-in-aid and lottery income. He said: “We have been able to limit the reduction in arts funding via the arts council to less than 5% in real terms.”
But while the lottery news was welcomed by the cultural sector, Vaizey’s speech was criticised for conflating the arts council’s lottery income with grant-in-aid funding.
One source said: “It’s misleading to add the two together and say the real-term cut is 5%, because the 30% cuts to grant-in-aid still stand.”
Lottery distributors are bound by the “principle of additionality”, which requires that lottery money go towards extra projects outside an institution’s core operational costs.
Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, said: “The cuts made by the DCMS are substantial revenue cuts and lottery money cannot substitute for these.
“Even then, the figures that the minister was using were projected some years into the future, and are not guaranteed income.”
ACE and the HLF are also set to enjoy a boost in April from changes that will see their respective shares of lottery money rise from 16.6% to 20%, as well as the end of the transfer of lottery funding to cover the cost of the Olympic Games.
