A POLITICIAN has successfully defended the funding formula for arts, culture and heritage after the States Assembly agreed to stick to a commitment to invest 1% of overall expenditure in the sector.
Deputy Montfort Tadier challenged ministers over a line in their proposed Budget, which stated that the funding mechanism for arts, culture and heritage would instead be linked to inflation.
This would mark a departure from a commitment made by the government in 2019 – on the back of a previous proposal brought by Deputy Tadier – that funding for the sector should be increased to 1% of overall revenue expenditure from 2022.
For this year, the 1% figure is £11.62m.
With a forecast drop in RPI to under 2% in 2025, Deputy Tadier argued that the current government’s proposals would see the sector missing out on £438,600 in funding that it would otherwise have received under the agreed formula.
His recent proposition, which asked that “no changes should be made to the target revenue expenditure model” unless a proposal “exclusively concerning the funding of those specific matters” is considered and approved by the States Assembly, was passed during this week’s sitting with 23 votes for and 15 votes against.
Speaking to the JEP after the debate, Deputy Tadier reiterated that the decision had merely enforced a commitment that had already been made.
“You don’t set aside a States decision on a whim with a single sentence in a government plan,” he added.
Deputy Tadier said he hoped the funding would be “allocated effectively and used well”.
The JEP has asked the government whether the proposed Budget will be affected as a result of the decision.
