Regional museums to miss out on 'renaissance' money

Britain's struggling regional museums learned yesterday that they would only receive a fraction of the cash they had demanded from the Government to save their crumbling buildings and endangered collections.

Even national museums and galleries, such as the Tate and the crisis-ridden British Museum, said the extra funding in the long-awaited financial settlement would be insufficient.

The heads of all regional and national collections said they would insist that Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, and Tessa Blackstone, the Arts Minister, honour their promises that more money would be made available.

Ms Jowell's announcement – coming three months after the rest of the arts were given details of their budgets – awarded regional museums in England £70m over four years, which includes £40m that had already been promised. They had asked for £267m over five years.

Although the move to supplement local authority funding is a breakthrough, the meagre sum will make it impossible to fully implement a rescue strategy. Instead, only a small number of institutions will benefit.

The museums admitted that the news was a disappointment. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport had accepted the plan laid out in a report, Renaissance in the Regions, published one year ago today, and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, had made a rare pledge of support earlier this year.

Mark Taylor, director of the Museums Association, said the mood among museum staff was subdued. The settlement "establishes an important principle – that central government has a responsibility to provide funding", he said. "But if this is to be the start of a real renaissance, more money will be needed over a longer period."

David Barrie, director of the National Art Collections Fund charity, which helps museums buy works of art, said the money amounted to £12,000 a year for each regional museum. "It is striking that over the next two years alone, £53m has been committed by the Government to well-meaning but speculative projects such as Culture Online and Creative Partnerships [encouraging culture in poorer schools]," he said.

Matthew Evans, chairman of the museums' body, Resource, said they would announce by December which museums would benefit. "We don't want to compromise the excellence of the vision of Renaissance by spreading the money too thinly. This will mean that the transformation of one of this country's most important cultural assets will take longer than we had hoped, but at least the lifeline has been thrown."

The British Museum will receive an extra £400,000 next year to open galleries it has been forced to close due to a projected £6.5m hole in its budgets. Against normal Treasury rules, the museum will be allowed to use some of the £35m proceeds from the sale of a building to help fund 150 redundancies and other savings that will cost about £7m. Neil MacGregor, its new director, said they were grateful for an increase. "However, in the longer term, it still leaves us unable to realise the museum's full potential," he said.

Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, echoed Mr MacGregor's concerns. Although the Government responded to its plea to meet a projected £1.5m shortfall in funding next year, Sir Nicholas said: "We now need to address the long term."

Ms Jowell said the settlement was a big increase in government support for the regions and would ensure the continuation of free access to national museums and galleries.