Only £495m Culture Recovery Fund grands paid out so far

Only £495m of £830m grants available under the Culture Recovery Fund have been paid out so far, according to a new study.

The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the government has given responsibility for awarding £1bn to four arm’s-length bodies (ALBs) in the first phase of funding for the scheme.

The four bodies are the Arts Council England, Historic England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

The criteria for awarding funding included that organisations were financially viable before COVID-19; had exhausted all other funding options; were ‘culturally significant’; or were essential to the cultural fabric of a place or supported the government’s wider ‘levelling-up’ agenda.

By 19 February, the ALBs had awarded £830m of the £1bn funding, with £495m paid out to recipients.

The ALBs have until the end of March to award all funding although these can mostly be distributed and used by recipients beyond March.

According to the NAO, funding has been awarded to a diverse range of organisations.

By December, 85% of revenue grants had been awarded to the arts and 15% to heritage organisations.

London received 31% of total funding, followed by the North West and South East which each received 12%.

The report also notes the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not yet paid out any funding from its second phase of funding, totalling £400m, which it announced in December 2020, with decisions scheduled to be made in March.

This comprises funding not awarded in the first funding phase plus £258m that it held back as contingency.

Responding to the NAO report, the chair of the Local Government Association’s culture, tourism and sport board, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: ‘The Culture Recovery Fund is providing a much needed lifeline for arts, heritage and cultural organisations in a time of crisis.

‘The arts and culture sector has an important role to play in our road to national economic recovery and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its delivery agencies have done an excellent job in rapidly distributing the first part of the funding. However, it’s incredibly important that this funding is distributed widely so communities across all parts of the country, where crucial cultural organisations are struggling, can benefit.

‘Government should work with local councils to identify key organisations within their communities that still need support to survive.’

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