Art Fund's response to the Autumn Budget

With 89% of UK adults agreeing that museums are important to UK culture, we are pleased that the 2024 Autumn Budget has demonstrated a commitment to UK museums through increases to Grant-in-Aid for National museums and galleries, capital investment in cultural infrastructure and the continuation of the Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief.  

The government has also announced increases to core Local Authority spending power by around 3.2%, with a view to moving towards multi-year settlements and a simplified local funding landscape to enable local authorities to plan more effectively.  

However, these commitments aren’t enough to address the urgent crisis in the sector.  

Concerns about funding shortfalls on the rise

Our 2024 Museum Directors Survey revealed that the financial strain on museums has worsened, with two thirds of museum directors concerned about funding shortfalls, a rise from half in 2022. Local authority budgets are stretched to breaking point and with so many museums reliant on local authority support, increasing numbers of civic museums are now facing imminent threats to their operations.  

In spring 2024, we took a strategic decision to focus our Reimagine grants on civic museums in response to the most urgent needs of the sector. The 20 museums and galleries across the UK that recently received Reimagine funding demonstrate the remarkable work civic museums deliver for their communities, working in partnerships across education, health and the environment.

Our call for emergency funding to save at-risk museums

In our joint Autumn Budget submission alongside sector bodies, we reiterated the English Civic Museums Network’s urgent ask for the government to make £20 million in emergency funding available to save the most at-risk civic museums from closure.

Although we recognise the challenging fiscal climate, we are disappointed that this need has not been addressed. Without targeted funding for civic museums, these important spaces are at risk of redundancies, site closures, reduced public access and, in some cases, the threat of sale of collections or insolvency.  

While we welcome commitments to support the lowest-paid workers through uplifts to the minimum wage, we recognise that this measure, alongside increases to employers’ National Insurance contributions, will increase museums’ operating costs and put even more pressure on already-stretched budgets. 

The importance of civic museums

Civic museums play a vital role in addressing the government's missions by driving economic growth, providing free and low-cost education opportunities, and engaging communities with the climate crisis through their collections.

Sector bodies will continue working in partnership to make the case to government for both the DCMS settlement and the upcoming Spending Review in spring 2025, to provide adequate emergency and long-term sustainable investment in all UK museums.