Government's museum funding is 'unfair' and focuses on London say Portsmouth heritage chiefs

Leaders have taken aim at culture chiefs in the heart of government over how cash is prioritised to support ‘national museums’.

It comes as the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) revealed it would have declared insolvency next month had the treasury not stepped in with a multi-million pound rescue package after losing £6.35m during the coronavirus crisis.

Now, Professor Dominic Tweddle, head of the NMRN, has hit out at the haphazard way the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport funds sites with ‘national museum’ status.

Many, like the Imperial War Museum and National Army Museum in London, receive between 60 and 80 per cent of their total funding from the government.

However, despite being classed as a national asset, the NMRN only receives 19 per cent of funding from the government.

‘Whilst we are relieved and grateful for the support we have received, we do need to reflect on, and address for the future, what has left us in this financial position,’ said Prof Tweddle.

‘I simply cannot see why the historic ships and collections we care for, are not treated with the same significance as those in the care of our national museum peers. Is our naval history not of equal value?’

Prof Tweddle said the battle for funding next year would be critical and that the government must look at a fairer system of supporting heritage assets.

‘The underlying issue is that we are underfunded compared to other national museums,’ he said. ‘It may have something to do with the fact that museums that are not in London just are not thought about in the same kind of way… There is a bit of that sniffy “you’re not part of the London elite” attitude.

‘That’s really rather insulting to Portsmouth, or to Gosport, Yeovilton or Hartlepool and the other places that we’re based in.’

Helen Bonser-Wilton, who heads Portsmouth’s Mary Rose Museum, backed the funding plea.

She said she had the museum, which contains the wreckage of Henry VIII’s doomed Tudor warship the Mary Rose, had been left with a ‘considerable gap’ in its cash.

Although hopeful, she warned there was no guarantee the museum would share a slice of the £1.57bn arts rescue package announced by the government.

‘That fund was launched saying it was there to rescue the crown jewels of British culture – one would certain hope that the Mary Rose counts as a crown jewel,’ she added.

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