ENO Agrees to Move out of London in Deal With ACE

English National Opera has agreed to move its base out of London "while continuing to own, manage and put on work at the London Coliseum."

Having withdrawn all funding to the organisation in last year's funding announcements, Arts Council England has agreed a budget of £24 million for 2024-26. The combined amount still falls short of the funding it had been receiving as a national portfolio organisation (£35.46 million for three years compared with £37.8 million as an NPO).

In a joint statement with ACE, ENO said

Following development work by the English National Opera (ENO), Arts Council England has set a budget of up to £24million investment for 2024-26. The company will now start the process of making an application to the Arts Council for an award up to this amount. ENO's developing plans are based on a reimagined artistic and business model with a primary base out of London, whilst continuing to own, manage and put on work at the
London Coliseum.

The provisional budget of up to £24million investment for 2024-25 and 2025-26 is to support the ENO make a phased transition to this new artistic and business model, and will include work split between their new main base and London. This will be subject to application and assessment with a decision by the Arts Council expected this summer. This funding would be in addition to the £11.46 million already agreed for 2023/24.

The shared ambition is for the ENO to be in a strong position to apply to the Arts Council's National Portfolio of funded organisations from 2026.

The Musicians' Union welcomed continued funding for English National Opera, but warned it still represents a significant real-terms cut. In a statement, the union said: this funding settlement represents a real-terms 24% cut since 2015 and is set against a backdrop of high inflation as well as the unknown costs of potentially moving to a new location.

The Musicians' Union will work with members and ENO management to ensure that the union gets the best possible outcome for our members, whether they are the full-time members whose jobs we will fight to protect or the freelancers who are essential to the entire orchestral ecosystem.

MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl said: "As a general principle, the Musicians' Union believes that more notice and consultation should be a prerequisite for any major changes to the funding of a National Portfolio Organisation. The ordeal English National Opera staff and people working in NPOs across the country have been through over the past few months must not be repeated."

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