The Arts Council for England has responded to criticism that its funding is biased towards London, in a new report, This England: how Arts Council England uses its investment to shape a national cultural ecology.

An independent report, published last October, challenged the way ACE allocates funding, saying its bias towards London is unfair. “We should not accept the myth that money for London is money for the UK, “said one of the authors, David Anderson, president of the Museums Association and director general of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.

The ACE report shows that £41.30 a head is spent on the arts in London. Then it’s a sharp drop to £12.10 a head for the West Midlands, which is in second place. This region fares much better than its neighbour, East Midlands, which is at the bottom with £4.30. Neither the East, the North East, or the South West fare much better: they all receive less than £6 per head.

Despite the disparity shown in these figures, ACE argues that its funding is fair: “Our taxpayer-funded, grant-in-aid split is 60/40 in favour of regions outside London, a trend assisted by the inclusion of the funds dedicated to music education hubs and regional museums.”

ACE also argues that if the spending is analysed by a 20 mile radius around cities, rather than postcodes, then it is evident that there is a less marked variation between London and other centres. It argues that creating a critical mass of funding in cities is the optimum way to invest.

However, even if the funding is looked at in the way ACE prefers, London still takes a greater share than the rest of the UK.

The figures also exclude a number of national companies based in London, including Royal Opera, English National Opera, the Royal National Theatre and the Southbank Centre.

“The funding system is broken and the assumptions that have underpinned it for decades no longer apply,” says Anderson. “Rather than producing selective evidence in defence of inequity and pushing blame for the crisis onto local authorities, we need Ed Vaizey (Culture Secretary) and Alan Davey (ACE chief executive) to accept the need for fundamental change and come up with a funding model that recognises the vital role of local museums in their communities.”