The English National Opera's London Coliseum home

English National Opera is working on plans to establish a primary base away from its current London Coliseum home

Photo: Andreas Praefcke

News

Additional £24m set aside for English National Opera

Arts Council England sets aside further £24m for English National Opera in a move that could see a return to the level of funding it received in the National Portfolio.

Neil Puffett
3 min read

An additional £24m has been budgeted to support English National Opera to establish a main base outside the capital in the next three years, Arts Council England (ACE) has confirmed.

A joint statement issued today by ACE and ENO said that in addition to an already agreed funding package of £11.46m for 2023/24, a further £12m has been set aside for 2024/25 and 2025/26.

This would bring the total funding received by ENO for the 2023-26 period to £35.46m, or £11.82m a year, close to the £12.38m a year it received as part of the National Portfolio for 2018-22. It is also more than double the £17m it was initially offered to relocate outside London when it was dropped from the National Portfolio in November.

READ MORE:

The agreement comes after a significant backlash against ACE's decision to remove ENO from the National Portfolio.

At the time ENO said it was "baffled and shocked" by the decision, with Chief Executive Stuart Murphy pointing out that the £17m offered to it over three years was less than half the amount it received as part of the National Portfolio.

The case has also been picked up in parliament, with MPs from both sides of the house calling for the decision to be reversed.

The statement issued today said ENO is developing plans "based on a reimagined artistic and business model with a primary base out of London, whilst continuing to own, manage and put on work at the London Coliseum".

It added that the additional £24m is intended to support ENO to make "a phased transition" to the new model and will be subject to application and assessment, with a final decision by ACE expected this summer.

"The shared ambition is for the ENO to be in a strong position to apply to the Arts Council’s National Portfolio of funded organisations from 2026," the statement said.

The Musician's Union said that after an "extremely difficult few months" for all the individuals and teams that make up the ENO company, the news "signals more security – at least in the short term".

But it added that the funding settlement represents a real-terms 24% cut since 2015 and is set against a backdrop of high inflation alongside the unknown costs of potentially moving to a new location.

The union's General Secretary Naomi Pohl said: “As a general principle, the Musicians’ Union believes that more notice and consultation should be a prerequisite for any major changes to the funding of a National Portfolio Organisation. 

"The ordeal English National Opera staff and people working in NPOs across the country have been through over the past few months must not be repeated.”