English National Opera hit by major funding cut and may move to Manchester

The English National Opera is to lose its £12.6m core annual funding from Arts Council England in a major shake-up that leaves its future uncertain.

The Arts Council grant accounts for more than double the opera company's box office income before Covid.

Instead, the prestigious company will get £17m over three years to "develop a new business model", with a suggestion it moves from London to Manchester.

The announcement is part of a wider overhaul of arts funding in England.

Public money from the government, as well as from the National Lottery, is used by Arts Council England to support arts and culture across the nation.

Referring to the ENO decision, Arts Council England chair Sir Nick Serota said: "This is an opportunity to create something exciting, potentially in Manchester, which will reach new audiences."

He added he has "every faith" in the leadership of the ENO to have "the dynamism and flair to imagine something new and extraordinary for the public".

As part of the latest funding announcement, more money will be handed out to organisations outside the capital.

The Shakespeare North Theatre in Prescot, Blackpool's illuminations and libraries in Barnsley, Warwickshire and East Yorkshire will all get cash for the first time.

What has been announced is the most dramatic shift in funding for the arts I can remember. Many will see it as long overdue.

We've known for some time that the money spent per head in London on culture is much higher than outside.

The Arts Council would say its decisions have been driven by its greater understanding of what people want from culture. Its own research shows that the demand is for art and culture to be much more local. People want it on their high streets.

But what's been announced today ties in clearly with the government's "levelling up" strategy. Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries made it plain she wanted more money moved from London.

One fifth of the cash that used to go to institutions in the capital will be shifted elsewhere by 2026. That can't come without an obvious cost for the likes of the National Theatre, the Southbank Centre and other renowned centres of culture.

As for the ENO and the talk that it might move to Manchester - the Arts Council is offering it transition financing to help find it a future. But we do not know whether it will take up that offer, and whether there is even room for it there.

Next year The Factory opens, which is Manchester's big shiny new £210m cultural venue. Some are already asking whether there is the audience to sustain that, let alone a new opera company.