黑洞社区

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 黑洞社区 that after the merger, Cabe鈥檚 activities would receive 鈥渦nder 拢3m鈥� per year for two years, after which no funding has been agreed. In 2009/10 Cabe received 拢6.9m in core funding from the communities department, making the figure a cut of 57%.

However, combined with the complete cut in the 拢4m culture department funding already announced for the quango, the total loss of core funding is at least 75%. In addition many of Cabe鈥檚 specifically funded programmes, such as the 拢1.4m it was paid by Partnership for Schools for its work on the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future programme, and the 拢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: 鈥淭he 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 鈥� we鈥檙e very lucky to have that level of quality.鈥�

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: 鈥淲e very quickly realised there was a much bigger opportunity here 鈥� about unifying skills in terms of design at a point in the economic cycle when the need for those services is at its greatest.鈥�

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