Chair defends shake-up in funding

Former Standard Life chief executive Sir Sandie Crombie was responding to a letter from playwrights who warned that the removal of multi-year Flexible Funding for 49 companies, and its replacement with project funding, was a “catastrophic error of judgement.”

Sir Sandie defended the funding changes, which he said were driven by the changing balance between increasing Lottery funds and declining government funding.

He went on to say the organisation would listen to “constructive feedback from the cultural sector,” adding: “We do recognise that the most effective form of communication is dialogue — during which we can begin to reduce the uncertainty regarding what the future holds for individual organisations.”