Debbonaire: Possible further ACE review under Labour

A Labour government would conduct a fresh review of Arts Council England (ACE) if the current process being led by Dame Mary Archer "does not ask the right questions", Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire has said.

Speaking at The Stage's Future of Theatre conference today (25 April) Debbonaire said that if her party wins the next general election, one of the first things she would do as Culture Secretary would be "a review of the Arts Council [England] – if necessary".

An existing review of ACE, initiated last month, is currently being conducted by Dame Mary Archer, with Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer saying the exercise will help ensure Arts Council England is "driving creative excellence in the arts by funding ambitious projects of the highest quality".

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Answering questions on the matter following her speech, Debbonaire said she will consider the findings of Archer's review, which is due to be completed by mid-July, but will order her own if it does not address what she perceives as the key issues for the sector.

"I'm really hoping that that review does come up with things that I can take straight away and put into practice," she said.

"But if it's been asking the wrong questions or it has not asked all of the questions that I want asking, then we'll have to do a bit more work.

"I think you can't just leave something as important as the Arts Council just stuck in perpetuity.

"We want a decade of national renewal and our Arts Council is central to that. A Labour government of yesteryear introduced the Arts Council. We want it to be the Arts Council at best it can possibly be."

Debbonaire said she feels that, under the current government, ACE has been handed "a bit of a rough gig".

"The government has handed it bits of government policy such as Levelling Up and then expected them to take the blame and cut them massively.

"Jeremy Hunt, the current Chancellor when he was Secretary of State [for Culture], cut the budget by 19%. That was 10 years ago. [ACE's budget] has been steadily eroded. So I think they've been handed a tough gig.

"But nevertheless, I think within that, we have to be asking possibly more questions. So I will wait and see what [the current review] comes up with."

Application processes

Asked by a member of the audience as to what an ideal review for Debbonaire would find in terms of changing ACE for the better, the Labour MP said she had heard from arts organisations about "complicated application processes" and ACE "not really getting to grips with the NPO process".

"I think there's some really obvious things that I think [ACE Chief Executive Darren Henley] and arts organisations already know need doing," she said.

"I want to make sure that we don't see access and excellence as in opposition to each other. I don't think Darren [Henley] does, but I think sometimes that has been people's experience, arts organisations experiences as well.

"I want to make sure that we don't see investment in grassroots as an alternative to having really excellent stuff.

"I am really proud of what the Arts Council is trying to do to deepen and strengthen access to the arts. [But] I do think they've genuinely been hampered by government."

Funding opportunities

Debbonaire also used her speech to set out her five priorities for the arts under a Labour government.

These involve getting more funding into the sector, finding the right balance for the use of artificial intelligence, improving creative education, boosting prospects for freelancers and improving diversity and equality.

"One of the first things I will do if we get into government is put in place a plan for the widest possible range of finance to go into the creative industries," she said.

"This includes creating a private finance model to attract funding from different sources. It includes reviewing the whole range of tax incentives.

"Every single opportunity there is to get more finance into the creative industries, whether that be private finance, philanthropy, new partnership models, state investment, the lottery, every single one should be taken."