Spending Review

[GnomeKing]

some of the proposed effects will have consequences years from now - we must consider both long and short term futures

[BillyPilgrim]

The only good thing i've heard out of all this doom and gloom are the amount of road and house building schemes that have now been given the green light.

Erm, house building (and housing regeneration) schemes have actually been cut by 75%. What remains is a vague hope that housing associations will find someone to borrow the money from to build new homes.

[BAJR]

See also the new post about the Rescue Heritage Cuts Map

[GnomeKing]

This is the Game Plan... - idealogical (not real austerity lead) cuts, with the vague superstition that 'the private sector' will take up the slack
(naturally the Market will save all, through individual choice, such as whether to be employed or not...)

Ah, but lets see what business people say - "we would love to build/develop/employ, but in 'These Hard Times', we need to pay less/be regulated less/not be hampered by trivial planning issues"

"Oh,look" - say Cameron et al - "the market has spoken - we dont want to see less wages/security/social provision/planning regulation, but that is clearly what the market wants...not our fault, and not much we can now the State has be reduced - sorry, "

2nd idealogical objective achieved ("touch-tag!no come back!")

"of course" - they will add - "business leadres genetating this vital life saving employment are critical to society, and thus deverse thier high wages and bonuses" - how else could we attract their 'talents'........

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]we must consider both long and short term futures

[/SIZE]
I am sitting on about two to four potential jobs which might not see any money well into next year but that’s not unusual for me. What I expect to see is the pensioned units to have their funding stopped and all new funding to be transparent and open to preferred local tender. It wont happen as the centralised interests will be dealing with their usual mates through the same old handshakes and backslapping. Here is an example COSMIC Implementation Pilot Project. So far its been about a fifteen year never ending funding saga http://www.e-a-a.org/wg2.htm

How does it work Gnomking

[BillyPilgrim]

A written Ministerial statement by Jeremy Hunt on the DCMS Spending Review has just been posted:

...we are insisting that English Heritage reduces its administration budgets by 50 per cent over the Spending Review period and cuts back on non-essential services. We want English Heritage to prioritise core activities such as planning advice, grants for heritage at risk and the conservation and maintenance of sites in its care. We also want them to strengthen their fundraising capacity and increase self-generated income.

[Silent Bob]

In other words. Close all of the bits that contain expertise, including all of the former members of the English Royal Comission and concentrate on all the bits that don't actually involve any archaeology ie ticket offices, site shops, giving money to people who've just dug up ?1000,000 worth of gold and, of course, the specialist division of organising weddings at Ancient Monuments. Just think, Dover Castle has a church on site!, There's a great hall where you could have receptions, only for a few hours of each day naturally. When they have finished doing up the barracks they could provide accomosation for guests (note, this isn't entirely ironic). It's the final victory of the profit over history faction. Maybe they could get former archaeologists to volunteer as bar staff.

[BillyPilgrim]

The Heritage Alliance have posted a response to the CSR by chairman Lloyd Grossman:

Yesterday’s announcements show that government as a whole still doesn’t quite ‘get’ heritage. Our heritage is among our greatest national assets yet also fragile and irreplaceable. It is vital that central and local government supports the framework to deliver the social and economic benefits that heritage brings and through which our members - the non-government heritage organisations - can fulfil their potential in caring for our heritage now and to inspire future generations.


We fear that the immediate and longer term impact of a 32% cut for English Heritage and reduced funding from Local Authorities combined with the wider economic climate will lead to irreversible deterioration and loss of our heritage, stacking up huge bills ahead and eroding public support.


We will be working with government to mitigate the impacts through partnerships, supporting social action and community responsibility. The pressures on the non-government heritage bodies will escalate but there is huge public support for our heritage and our challenge now is to turn that passion into practical inventiveness and enterprise.

Have there been official responses from any other heritage bodies, ALGAO, FAME, IfA etc?