Hodge: Arts Council Must Radically Change or Face 'Disaster'
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- Margaret Hodge told the DCMS select committee that Arts Council England needs a "radical review" of its funding use, its relationship with funded bodies, and its wider role, warning it would be a "disaster" if ACE merely "pays lip service" to her recommendations
- Hodge's December report, drawn from conversations with 700 people in the culture sector, found a "loss of respect and trust" for ACE driven in part by perceived political interference in decisions
- The forced relocation of English National Opera from London to Manchester was a "raw experience" for many of those Hodge interviewed, and is held up in the report as a flashpoint for sector anger
- ACE was described as "incredibly bureaucratic" by Hodge, who said its processes are "time consuming" and "stifle creativity" — she recommended radically cutting application and reporting requirements and reducing the number of funding streams
- Hodge called for all correspondence between the culture secretary and ACE to be made public, and for commercially successful publicly funded productions like the National Theatre's War Horse to return money to ACE — a step she acknowledged would require amending ACE's royal charter
- Other recommendations include touring tax relief for orchestras facing soaring costs in Europe post-Brexit, lengthening the National Portfolio Organisation funding cycle from three to five years with a rolling application programme, and guaranteeing funded bodies at least 80% of their funding in the next round
- ACE is recruiting a new chair to replace Nicholas Serota; Hodge said the successor must be a "change manager" who "loved the arts" and is a "great advocate" for the sector
Why it matters: With ACE replacing long-serving chair Nicholas Serota and distributing public money to institutions ranging from the English National Opera to community ventures, Hodge's 700-person consultation gives her "radical overhaul" demand unusual sector weight — and the proposed transparency measures (publishing all ministerial letters to ACE, clawing back commercial windfalls) would meaningfully constrain both Whitehall and grantees if adopted.
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