Government will spend βunder Β£3mβ for two years as merger with Design Council confirmed
Communities department funding for the work of Cabe will be slashed by more than half as it becomes part of the Design Council.
The chief executive of the Design Council, David Kester, told ΠΤ°Ι΅ηΜ¨ that after the merger, Cabeβs activities would receive βunder Β£3mβ per year for two years, after which no funding has been agreed. In 2009/10 Cabe received Β£6.9m in core funding from the communities department, making the figure a cut of 57%.
However, combined with the complete cut in the Β£4m culture department funding already announced for the quango, the total loss of core funding is at least 75%. In addition many of Cabeβs specifically funded programmes, such as the Β£1.4m it was paid by Partnership for Schools for its work on the ΠΤ°Ι΅ηΜ¨ Schools for the Future programme, and the Β£15m Sea Change programme, have come to an end.
Kester said it was inevitable that the amount of work Cabe will be able to do, particularly around its Design Review role, will diminish. He said: βThe volume of work will be affected undoubtedly. There will be less reviews than there currently are. However we are be able to take across 20 people who all have a deep knowledge and specialism β weβre very lucky to have that level of quality.β
Cabe currently carries out around 300 reviews of major projects a year.
In his first interview since the merger was confirmed on Friday, Kester said the move was inevitably driven in part by practical considerations with the government wanting to cut funding. However, he said: βWe very quickly realised there was a much bigger opportunity here β about unifying skills in terms of design at a point in the economic cycle when the need for those services is at its greatest.β
More to followβ¦
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