Public arts spending heavily biased towards London, report reveals

The report found £69 of arts funding was spent per London resident, in comparison with £4.60 elsewhere

The report found a couple from Leeds attending the National Theatre would pay £400 more than a couple based in London (BBC)

Public spending on arts and culture in England is heavily biased towards London, a report has revealed.

Almost ten times more is spent per resident on arts in the capital in comparison to other parts of the country, despite the fact 85 per cent of the English population lives outside of London.

The Rebalancing Our Cultural Capital report found £69 was spent per London resident between 2012 and 2013, compared with £4.60 elsewhere.

The report, compiled by arts figures Peter Stark, Christopher Gordon and David Powell, calls for the re-balancing of where funding goes.

The authors stress that they are not against funding arts in London, but claim that the city’s “excessive dominance” is unhealthy for both the city and the nation as a whole.

Instead, they propose a system that would see a five year long £600 million investment programme plug money into cultural projects outside of London.

The startling gap between the figures comes from adding the amount spent by the Arts Council England (ACE) with the amount spent by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

This year, ACE distributed £163 million to cultural organisations in London, while the Department of Culture spent £401 million in the city.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Sir Peter Bazalgette, chair of the Arts Council, said: “There is an imbalance, there's no question. I've only been at the Arts Council for a few months.

“I'm absolutely passionate about funding arts and culture in the region. We need to do more."

He added: "I would say judge us in two years’ time. The trend is towards more spending in the regions and that's what we'll be doing."

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the BBC that arts and culture in England were "in very good shape".

He added: “London, of course, is the nation's capital and the location for hundreds of national and local arts companies and cultural organisations.”