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NPO decisions: Changes in regional funding distribution

The North of England and Midlands see notable increases, while London retains the largest share of the funding pot despite cuts.

Patrick Jowett
4 min read

Following the release of Arts Council England’s (ACE) new National Portfolio last Friday, Arts Professional has been looking into the regional differences as to how funding will be split.

Our analysis compares the funding given to National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) in the 2022/23 extension year with the funding awarded to NPOs for 2023/24, across ACE's five regions: the North, the Midlands, London, the South East and the South West.

The redistribution of funding outside of London was a key talking point in the run up to the NPO announcement, so as expected, it is the only area that has seen a cut in designated funds.

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Arts Professional's analysis of 2023/24 funding levels in London does not include Transfer Programme organisations, as the programme's funding is part of the £24m ACE was instructed to move away from the capital earlier this year.

However, more money is still ring-fenced for the capital than anywhere else in the country, equating to around a third of the total portfolio.

Large increases in the North and Midlands can likely be attributed to the government’s levelling-up agenda, with Levelling Up for Culture places seeing a 95% uplift in funding.

Despite having a relatively small percentage increase in NPOs, the South-West received the highest percentage increase in funding.

It is also one of only two regions – alongside the North – where the average spend per NPO will increase in the latest portfolio round.

Area Average spend per NPO (2022/23) (£) Average spend per NPO (2023/24) (£) Difference (£)
London 642,952 557,212 -85,740
Midlands 543,027 492,008 -51,019
North 440,129 460,675 20,546
South-East 394,260 329,236 -65,024
South-West 280,109 316,371 36,262

The decrease in average spend per NPO in other regions, alongside the increase in the number of NPOs, points towards ACE looking to stretch its funding across more organisations. 

This, alongside the loss of NPOs and funding in London, highlights the impact of the government's levelling-up agenda on ACE's new portfolio.

The North takes NPO top spot

In analysing how many NPOs are in each region, Arts Professional has not included the 24 London-based organisations on ACE's transfer programme, which will be looking to relocate to a location outside of the capital to meet the programme's conditions.

This means for the first time, the North of England is set to become the region with the most NPOs.

The 2023-2026 portfolio offered a record amount of funding, and received an unprecedented number of applications, so it is unsurprising to see the NPOs increase in all regions outside the capital.

There is now a notable difference between the number of NPOs in the South-East and South-West. After both regions had an identical number of NPOs in 2022/23, the South-East will now have 22 more.

Large increase in mid-level offers

ACE’s last national portfolio split funding into three bands: Band 1, for grants up to £250,000, Band 2, for grants between £250,000 and £1m and Band 3, for grants over £1m.

Arts Professional has used the same metric when analysing the new national portfolio and found a large increase in mid-level funding offers.

Offers of Band 2 funding have increased by almost two-thirds (65.6%), compared to an 18% increase in Band 1 offers and a 13.6% increased in Band 3 offers.

In 2023/24, the North of England will have the most NPOs with annual grants of £1m or above, with 25, compared to 21 in London.

The Midlands will have 14, the South-West will have 8 and the South-East will have 7.