Extra £50m for arts funding

Arts Council England and the national museums and galleries are to get extra cash on top of the agreed inflation settlement.

James Purnell, the Culture Secretary, has told Arts Council England that it will get an extra £50 million by 2011.

Funding will increase from £417 million now to £467 million by the end of the three-year settlement period.

This is a real year on year increase of 1.1 per cent on top of inflation - or 12 per cent across the whole period of the deal not allowing for inflation, he said.

He has also promised the national museums and galleries that they will each receive slightly more than inflation.

And an additional pot of £4.5 million by 2010/2011 has been awarded for special projects.

These include cash for the second phase of the Natural History Museum's Darwin Centre and for the Victoria and Albert Museum's Sackler Centre.

The Museum of London will get help towards the cost of merging with the Museum in Docklands.

The Treasury announced on Tuesday that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would maintain its budget in line with inflation. Some other government departments suffered up to a five per cent cut.

English Heritage has appealed to Mr Purnell to reverse a 10-year decline in its funding. About £100 million has been lost.