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National Theatre: Response to Consultation on the National Lottery Shares When the Lottery finally came into being in 1994 it addressed a critical situation in the state of the infrastructure of many of the country’s Arts buildings. Huge, disruptive rebuilding programmes were required to deal with the cumulative effects of a lack of investment in repairs, maintenance and capital renewal over a period of many years, but particularly exacerbated by the preceding years of cash freezes and cuts in Arts funding. The Arts have thrived during the recent stable period of revenue funding but the shortfall in lottery funding for capital has in recent years started to be felt again. This situation will become more acute with the planned cuts in Arts funding, during which period it is inevitable that the budgets set aside for capital renewal will be cut to sustain programme activity. The result of delay in essential capital spend will result in a loss of mission and, ultimately lead to greater and additional costs –this borne out by the experience of the mid 90’s. There is therefore a serious risk that within a very short period the benefits of the last round of capital investment will be undone and the country’s facilities will quickly become shabby, incapable of producing high class work and no longer a serious presence in driving the creative economy. The proposal to return the Lottery share going to the Arts to 20% is therefore a most welcome and appropriate response from Government. The channeling of Lottery receipts for the arts through the Arts Council as Lottery distributor is also key as the Arts Council is in the ideal position to assess need and determine which organisations have the management capacity and growth potential to take forward such capital expenditure. Funding for the Arts will clearly be difficult during the next 5 years. In our view it is essential that a sufficient share of the arts lottery funding is ring fenced for capital spend in line with the original lottery objectives and that it is linked to clear strategic objectives. We want to make it clear that this is not about creating new, expensive, “grand projets”; this is no time for vanity projects. Rather, if the Arts are to thrive and to continue to make a significant contribution to the cultural and economic life of the country, it is essential that they have the means to focus on maintaining current estates; making sensible alterations to existing buildings to accommodate new work - e.g. digital, collaboration with other arts companies, work with children and young people – and ensure audience access; undertaking works needed to cope with changes in external environment and; funding energy efficiency and environmentally sustainable works. Page 1 of 1