Government announces £9m-a-year funding for Factory Manchester

£9m a year in revenue funding has been allocated to the Factory Manchester from 2018-19, the government announced yesterday in its 2015-20 spending review.

The money joins the £78m in capital funding already allocated to the venue, part of the government’s £1.6bn investment in capital projects by 2020-21. Previous costings left Manchester City Council with £25m to raise before 2019 to fully kit out the Factory – which has the capacity to be transformed from a 2,200 seat theatre to an immersive space with a standing capacity of 5,000.

Architecture firm the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has been selected to design the building based on plans for a large glass cube, accessible by a long public walkway, and a public plaza underneath the building. OMA saw off competition from 48 other applicants, including Zaha Hadid Architecture, and is to develop the scheme with Manchester City Council and developers Allied London.