Culture Media & Sport Committee inquiry into public support for theatre: BECTU response

23 December 2004

Response to the Culture Media & Sport Committee inquiry into public support for theatre.

1. BECTU is the trade union which organises stage, front-of-house, technical and administrative workers in UK theatre. Our members, who include staff, freelance and casual workers, operate throughout the theatre sector, including the national houses, regional theatre and the West End.
2. Our overwhelming current concern, in the light of the recent DCMS spending settlement, is with the level and consistency of public financial support for British theatre and with its consequential implications for the labour force.
3. The theatre sector as a whole - including both subsidised and commercial theatre - is increasingly recognised as having a significant economic impact. The recent study by Dominic Shellard commissioned by the Arts Council of England (ACE) and other bodies calculated that the sector is worth £2.6b annually (excluding, for example, touring theatre companies). This takes into account both direct and indirect contributions to the economy, including the multiplier effect of theatre spending and the additional spending of theatre audiences. The report points out that this very significant level of economic activity is against a background of a minimal amount of public subsidy: £100m in England, £12.8m in Scotland, £6.4m in Wales and £2.1m in Northern Ireland. On this account, the approximately 540 theatres in the UK make a very significant contribution to the economy - one which places the level of public subsidy into its proper perspective.
4. It is to the credit of the Labour Government that the policy of deep cuts in arts funding implemented by the previous Conservative administration was reversed. In particular, the settlement for the 3 years from 2003/4, which provided an additional £100m per year for the arts and specifically an additional £25m per year for theatre, was widely welcomed throughout the theatre sector.
5. At the same time as this spending settlement was announced (July 2000), ACE published its National Policy for Theatre in England and instigated a Theatre Review proves to oversee the application of the additional public funding from its then existing base. The purpose of the Review therefore provided a means of tracking the impact of the additional public funding for theatre and of the state of English subsidised theatre. The initial Review, together with research commissioned by ACE from MORI on this whole process, has provided the following findings:
   • The previous period of underfunding was accompanied by declining standards, lower productivity and falling audiences.
   • The new funding, together with the new national policy, has had a significant and invigorating influence on the theatre sector.
   • There are more and better employment opportunities; theatres can increasingly plan ahead and think strategically; and, perhaps most importantly, the quality of work in theatre in England has improved.
6. The conclusion we draw is that the increased public funding has produced clearly beneficial results; that these results are disproportionate to the relatively limited amount of public money involved; and that financial stability - at least in terms of the 3 year settlement - has been clearly preferable to the previous period of stop-start, year on year uncertainty about public funding.
7. It is precisely because of this beneficial impact of previous government policy in this area that we are all the more concerned about the recent settlement announcement by the DCMS for the years 2005/06 to 2007/08. By freezing the funding allocation at its 2005 level until 2008, the settlement will be worth - on the Treasury's own inflation estimates - £10m less in 2006/07 and £20m less in 2007/08. While it might have been unreasonably optimistic to hope for a further significant increase along the lines of the previous settlement, we believe a settlement at least matching inflation would have been a reasonable expectation. Instead the theatre sector is faced with a cut of £30m in real terms.
8. This is, in our view, regrettable not only because of the reduced funding in itself but also because it represents a return to the stop start financial uncertainty which was so harmful to British theatre in the previous period. Instead of following a stable and continuing strategy, many theatres could now be faced with a return to the era of uncertainty and cuts - especially in the light of additional questions about the future amount of lottery funding.
9. As a trade union with long experience of the theatre sector we are only too aware of the likely consequences for the theatre workforce. Even after the recent generous funding settlement, much theatre work continues to be characterised by unacceptable levels of casual employment, low pay, lack of access to training and a poor record on equal opportunities. This represents the 'silent subsidy' provided to the theatre industry by workers whose commitment to the sector is far from adequately recognised and rewarded.
10. Progress has begun to be made in some of these areas in the recent period. BECTU has been at the forefront of efforts to tackle low pay and to improve access to training through the union's TOSCA project, which aims to promote the learning of key and basic skills by theatre workers through the training of Union Learning Representatives.
11. BECTU has also been keen to address the serious under representation of black and ethnic minority workers within the theatre workforce. The ACE's Eclipse Report (2002) indicated, for example, that only 4% of staff in regional theatres were from ethnic minority backgrounds. The union has therefore been in discussion with ACE about the implementation of a new diversity policy, including ethnic monitoring of staff and a target employment levels set in proportion to the local population. The union brings particular expertise and commitment in this area following our successful and TUC award-winning Move On Up initiative promoting increased ethnic minority employment opportunities in film and television.
12. The sobering fact is that the prospects for progress in all of these areas rest on the assumption of a stable if not increasing labour force in theatre. This in turn is linked to stable and adequate public funding. We therefore believe the recently announced settlement - with its failure to match inflation - is a potentially significant threat to the future development of subsidised theatre. We would hope even now that the lessons of the recent past could lead to a reconsideration of the settlement and - for a relatively small amount of extra public funding - to an increased award which could allow the sector to build on the initiatives made possible by the previous settlement.