§ 2.44 p.m.
§ Baroness Elliot of HarwoodMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how business sponsorship of the arts is being encouraged.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, the Government's Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme offers matching grants for new sponsorship. This has already brought £6.7 million of new money into the arts since it was set up in October 1984, including £5 million worth of new sponsorship from industry and commerce. In addition, my right honourable friend the Minister for the Arts takes every opportunity, as he visits different parts of the country, to publicise the benefits of arts sponsorship to both parties.
The Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts works full time promoting business sponsorship nationwide.
§ Baroness Elliot of HarwoodMy Lords, I should like to congratulate the Government very much on this policy. It seems to be working extremely well. I wonder whether the Minister can say whether it covers Scotland and Wales, and what other ideas the Government have for spreading it out so as to get more money from business.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleYes, my Lords. I can tell my noble friend that to the best of my knowledge and belief this is a countrywide scheme. In regard to new ideas, we are continually keeping the system under review. The Government have already done all kinds of things on the tax front to make it more sensible for businesses and individuals to give money to all charities, not only to the arts, and to make that more likely.
§ Baroness BirkMy Lords, is it not the case that, while providing means to encourage business sponsorship, which the Minister has mentioned, the Government's own inadequate arts subsidy discourages a climate of comprehensive support for the arts? Without larger sums from the public sector being made available, the arts will continue to retain their low priority and remain susceptible to the whims of patronage instead of developing their huge revenue earnings and employment potential, which they are unable to do at the moment.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, I think I disagree with the noble Baroness. The public subsidy for the arts is extremely generous as a basic level and the 819 Government's intention, through the business sponsorship schemes, has been to top this up. The arts as a whole are benefiting very greatly from this.
§ Lord Boyd-CarpenterMy Lords, does my noble friend's use of the expression "already" in connection with tax treatment of this matter give reasonable grounds for hope for 18th March?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, I too have read recent speculation in the press. I do not think it would be right for me to comment on it beyond saying that my right honourable friend receives all kinds of advice, good, bad and plain lunatic, in forming his Budget. I myself have even been known to contribute.
§ Lord AveburyMy Lords, does not the emphasis on business sponsorship mean, in the case of music, that popular music, or music which appeals to the largest number of people, will tend to be played ad nauseam, whereas music which appeals to smaller numbers will tend to be neglected? Will the noble Lord ask the Arts Council whether it finds that, with the gradual shift of emphasis towards business sponsorship, the minority interests in music are tending to be neglected?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, perhaps I may say, as a regular visitor to Glyndebourne, which to the best of my knowledge and belief is entirely subsidised by private finance and has no government money at all, that on many occasions they produce opera which I think would not otherwise see the light of day. Thus I do not see that the minority interest is always being neglected.
§ Lord Nugent of GuildfordMy Lords, is my noble friend aware that, although this is a very attractive scheme in principle, in practice it is extremely difficult to get if off the ground? Is he aware that in my local town of Guildford, which is not unprosperous, we have had no response whatsoever? My noble friend Lord Bessborough, who also is president of his theatre in Chichester, has been successful but in only a very limited way. Can we do something to advise theatres such as ours, which now have no help from the Arts Council, what technique should be followed to attract local business sponsorship so that we might have the benefit of this scheme? At present we try and try but have no result.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, yes. I should advise my noble friend and others in his position to get in touch with the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts, which has three full-time regional people—I was going to call them "salesmen" but "directors" might be a more appropriate term—who have been very successful in the past year and who I have no doubt would like to help my noble friend.
§ Lord Hutchinson of LullingtonMy Lords, would the Minister agree that, unlike Glyndebourne, most of the clients of the Arts Council are of no interest whatever to rich corporations or rich individuals for the purpose of advertising or of status, and that that applies particularly to those enterprises which at the moment are struggling for survival after April 1st? Can 820 the Minister tell the House how much private money he has managed to raise for the Empire, Sunderland, for the Theatre Royal at Liverpool, for the Philharmonic Hall at Liverpool or, indeed, for Sadler's Wells?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleNo, my Lords, not without notice; and certainly not at Question Time can I go into detailed answers on such an exhaustive list as the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson, has just produced. However, what I will say as far as successor bodies and abolition are concerned is that they have been given 100 per cent. of the rate support grant that the senior bodies would have had in the coming year, and therefore the fact that the money was spent in the past is no reason to suppose that it will not be spent in the future.
§ Baroness BirkMy Lords, on that point, is the Minister not aware that the Arts Council's estimate was for £35 million to make up for the effects of abolition and that, in fact, they have got £25 million; so that, for starters, they are £10 million short?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, I am well aware of the Arts Council's estimate—in fact, we had a mini-debate on it not very long ago—and I am well aware of the provision my right honourable friend has made. But this, of course, is extra to the 100 per cent. rate support grant figure that I mentioned just now to the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson.
Lord Paget of NorthamptonMy Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that the Government should say a word of thanks to our noble friend Lord Boardman, who has provided us with that wonderful Reynolds Exhibition at the Royal Academy?
§ Lord SkelmersdaleYes, my Lords, I most certainly agree with the noble Lord. I welcome all sponsorship wherever it occurs and from whomsoever it comes.