Revealed: Undercover Arts Council grants to pay off London debts
mainLiz Hill on ArtsProfessional has a helluva story. The ACE has apparently been helping big London clients meet the interest on their debt repayments.
All very quietly and under the table, from a contingency budget. The South Bank, needless to say, gets most.
Three million here, three million there, that’s where our money goes.
Not surprised – and thank God the money is there. Ticket prices on the South Bank are relativel cheaper than elsewhere. Fine line between putting up ticket prices, musicians at home earning a living and then excluding many in a recession on lower incomes. Don’t know in all honesty what the answer is.
£49 is spent by the ACE per head in London (15% of the population) for every £1 spent outside the capital (85% of the population).
The principal symphonic concert venue in the West Midlands – serving a region of 5 million people, 10% of the population of England – receives £83,000 per year from the ACE. (I haven’t omitted a zero).
Don’t know why those particular figures suddenly spring to mind…
Shouldn’t someone have just kept quiet about this? Now there will probably be some investigation and it will cease. Just to get a story!