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Arts Council England review to avoid ‘debate between excellence and access’


The culture secretary Lisa Nandy has hinted that a departmental review of Arts Council England may begin before Christmas.

First announced by the previous Conservative government, the review was set up to examine whether the arm’s length funding body was effectively delivering its mission.

The original review, which would have been chaired by Conservative peer Mary Archer, was put on pause after Labour came to power in the July general election.  

At an evidence session for the culture, media and sport select committee this week, Nandy confirmed that the review would begin shortly, indicating that it “may or may not” start before Christmas.

It was reported this week that Labour peer Margaret Hodge has been appointed to chair the review, but Nandy did not confirm this to the committee.

She said the review would seek to avoid a “deadening debate.. between access and excellence”, adding: “It has to be both… you’ll see when we publish the terms of reference that we’re very, very focused on that.”

Nandy said tackling parts of the country that have become cultural deserts would be one of the key concerns of the review.

“We’ve seen creativity downgraded in the curriculum, and as we’ve seen, very big cuts to council budgets across the country,” she said.

“There are whole parts of the country that have become cultural deserts where young people, in particular, don’t have access to arts and culture at all. And that’s one of the things that we want to address through the arts council review.

“It will look at whether delivering through the arts council is actually working, whether it needs to change its way of operation, and whether we need to tighten its remit.”

Nandy said she had given a steer to the arts council that the next round of National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding should “do far more at working with local organisations to fund what is already there in communities, to be able to grow and expand”.

“My own experience of arts council funding is that too often people are brought in to do culture and arts to a place, and I think that’s not had the benefits that communities would expect,” said Nandy.

The review would be completed by the time the next round of NPO funding is launched, Nandy said.

Arts Council England is due to announce the successful applicants for the next NPO round in April 2026, before the new National Portfolio commences in April 2027.

Nandy also told the committee that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was facing some “tough decisions” in the upcoming comprehensive spending review, amid rumours that chancellor Rachel Reeves is demanding 5% savings from every government department.

The culture secretary said the process had not officially started yet but said “we are aware that money is tight, and until we can get the economy growing, we will be in a challenging set of circumstances”.

“We’re making sure that the money that we have is better spent and that does mean taking some tough decisions, but it shouldn’t mean, if we get this right, getting worse outcomes – it should mean better outcomes,” said Nandy.

She defended her decision to drop initiatives such as the Seaside Heritage Fund, which she said was cancelled because it “didn’t have any funding attached”.

Nandy acknowledged the “fragility” of sectors such as the museum sector. “We’ve got an aging set of building stock that we’ve got to deal with, which is one of the reasons that we’re pleased with the outcome of the last spending review, because we were able to get quite significant amounts of funding released for capital expenditure,” she said.

Asked about the recent cyber attack at the British Library and theft scandal at the British Museum, Nandy told the committee that her department was working to assess the risks facing such organisations and to support them.

“I’ve had meetings with all of those institutions that you mentioned in order to make sure that they’re really gripping this and that the department is providing what they need,” she told the committee.

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