WIREDGOV

Treasured local museums and heritage sites could get a major boost from lottery money if the system awarded more funding to the good causes it was originally designed to help, council leaders have said.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, is now calling on the Government to review how lottery funding is awarded to good causes and have a frank and open discussion about the future of lottery funding.

Councils spend £540 million every year on the arts, museums, galleries, theatres and heritage. However, councils will have experienced a 40 per cent cut in government grants by the end of this parliament having an inevitable impact on the enhancement to the quality of local people's lives that a thriving local culture brings. Local authority areas can also expect to receive less of a boost from Arts Council England (ACE), as they face cuts of 17 per cent over the next two years in non-lottery funding as it falls from £327.5 million in 2014/15 to £271 million in 2015/16.

Some councils have already reduced their arts budgets and the long-term future of the thousands of public museums, galleries and arts initiatives are in question as councils are forced to focus their dwindling resources on essential services such as caring for the elderly, protecting children, filling potholes and collecting bins. In this harsh financial climate, any additional boost provided by buoyant lottery funding is even more important.

Currently, arts, heritage and sport each receive only 20 per cent of lottery money, whilst the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) is responsible for distributing 40 per cent of all funds raised for good causes – totalling around £600 million each year. And with arts, heritage and sport being amongst the most severely squeezed in council budgets any money that councils can get in this area could make a huge difference to modernising buildings, improving sports facilities and bringing more cultural activities to the community.

Evidence shows that exposure to the arts and participation in sport helps to make people mentally and physically healthier and spending on the arts can boost economic growth. Lottery funding has been used across the country to complement public funding and help local authorities build new museums and leisure centres, repair heritage sites and bring touring exhibitions to theatres around the country.

This has made a significant impact to local areas, but in the current financial climate where funding cuts to arts, heritage and sport are ever-increasing, it is important that lottery funding keeps pace with how councils are spending their budgets and focus on what would benefit from funding the most.

As councils are in the unique position of knowing what services would add the most value to their residents, the LGA is now calling for a frank and open discussion about the future of how this funding is distributed. A founding principle of the National Lottery was that funding should be directed to additional activity that boosted public spending. Avoiding the duplication of funding in some Big Lottery Fund areas which are already crowded with other government policy and programmes is one way in which more money could be re-directed to the core good causes that need the money most.

In an address to councillors across the country today, Cllr Flick Rea MBE, Chair of the LGA's Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: "Museums, leisure centres and heritage attractions could get a huge boost if the Government reviewed lottery funding and stripped out duplication with other Government programmes that is contrary to the founding additionality principle of the National Lottery.

"Since its inception the National Lottery has given billions of pounds to good causes and our country is a more culturally rich and diverse place because of it. However, as funding continues to get cut and council budgets are getting increasingly tighter, we now need to have a conversation around how money is allocated and ensure that it is ending up where it is needed the most.

"Councils have worked hard to protect their arts, heritage and sport funding over the past few years and strived to find innovative ways to link it to economic and growth priorities. However, the Government's decision to continually focus its most severe cuts on councils, which deliver hundreds of services on which millions of people rely each day, is inevitably having an impact on the arts, heritage and sport, and the additional boost provided by lottery funding is ever more important ."

Contact

Greg Burns, Senior Media Relations Officer
Local Government Association
Telephone: 020 7664 3184
Email: greg.burns@local.gov.uk
Media Office (for out-of-hours contact): 020 7664 3333
Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ

www.local.gov.uk

Follow the LGA press office on www.twitter.com/LGANews