Heritage 'a priority' in the Comprehensive Spending Review


Anthea Case, Chairman of Heritage Link, has written to James Purnell, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, following the Government's announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Transport Trust plays a leading role in Heritage Link.

Commenting on her letter [see below] Anthea stressed that 'Heritage must not be the victim of poor allocation by Government. DCMS ministers put heritage as a priority in the Comprehensive Spending Review and now must allocate cash within the Department.'

Dear Secretary of State,

I am writing on behalf of Heritage Link which represents the whole of the voluntary heritage sector.

We appreciate that DCMS as a whole has secured a reasonable settlement in what has been a tough spending round but while the whole package is being labelled 'generous', we are extremely concerned that there is no mention at all in the Report for DCMS of heritage or the historic environment in clear contrast to funding for the arts and museums and galleries which will increase at least in line with inflation. This indicates to us that yet again heritage falls off the bottom of DCMS' list of priorities.

DCMS ministers put heritage as a priority in the Comprehensive Spending Review. The sector jointly identified targeted spending in Valuing our Heritage - to support the successful implementation of the Heritage Protection Review, for places of worship and to broaden access to heritage. The CSR statement does not appear to reflect the huge popularity the heritage enjoys nor the enormous contribution it makes to the quality of life for everyone in this country. This is at odds with the overarching Departmental objective of improving the quality of life for all.

Since 1997 Government funding to heritage has not even kept pace with inflation. If these settlements had been inflation-proofed every year since 1997, the sector would now be better off by £100m. This £100m deficit is far from the 'record investment in arts and culture over the past 10 years' that the CSR report claims. We took issue over this with Tony Blair in his legacy speech at Tate Modern and never received a satisfactory answer. So, for the heritage sector, it is simply not true that 'the cultural sectors have continued to flourish through increased Government investment over the last ten years'.

We urge you to reverse this downward trend by making sure the DCMS 'cake' is cut in a way that internal allocations do not continue to prioritise other cultural sectors at the expense of heritage. If the disparity is not addressed, it will mark 10 years of debilitating cuts in public funding for heritage at a time when non-government support for the heritage is under increasing pressure and make it impossible to achieve a heritage protection system appropriate to the 21st century.

Anthea Case,
Chairman, Heritage Link
10 October 2007