The present government has given the creative and performing arts a high profile in its policy aims with particular emphasis on extending their appeal. Despite generous Millennium and Lottery funding, budget forecasts indicate that this objective has to be reached with very limited increases in real resources. This suggests the need for readjustment in the programmes of the big spenders and close monitoring of their programmes and performance.

Sir Alan Peacock's article, published today, Friday 23rd June, in Fiscal Studies, is the first serious attempt to disentangle the complicated financial relationships between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and its clients and to illustrate the use of economic analysis to highlight policy problems. He commends the efforts of the DCMS to improve methods of appraisal and control of programmes but contends that these attempts are likely to be only partially successful because of the strong opposition of the big players in the arts world, who fight to follow their own agenda. The result would be likely to be a continuation of the situation where some of the more expensive art forms such as opera and ballet will remain the least popular and the BBC will remain a protected species until the renewal of its Charter in 2005. The author argues that a policy shift is needed which would reduce the influence of peer-group assessment on the programmes of grant-aided arts and heritage organisations and increase that of the public. This would entail the retention of charging for entry to museums and galleries (subject to suitable exemptions) and the appointment of representatives of the public to boards of management of arts organisations who would be elected from amongst their subscribers.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. 'Public financing of the arts in England' by Sir Alan Peacock is published in Fiscal Studies, vol. 21, no.2. Copies are available from IFS, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE, telephone 020 7291 4800 or e-mail mailbox@ifs.org.uk, price £10.
2. Fiscal Studies articles are available online from ingenta.
3. Professor Sir Alan Peacock was Chair of the Arts Council Committee on Orchestral Resources in Britain (1970) and the Home Office Committee on the Financing of the BBC (1985-86). He was a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain (1986-92) and Chairman if the Scottish Arts Council (1986-92). He also spent three years in government as Chief Economic Advisor to the DTI (1973-76) during which period he was a member of the Board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Now retired, he continues to write on the economics of public finance and on public policy in general. He also writes music.
4. Contact: Professor Sir Alan Peacock
   telephone 0131 447 5917 or 0131 650 4633
   peacock@ebs.hw.ac.uk