Council spending on cultural services has fallen by £390m over the past eight years, according to the County Councils Network (CCN).
The network said upper-tier county local authorities have been forced to slash funding discretionary service areas like arts, libraries, and culture so they can fulfil their care obligations to the elderly and vulnerable.
Metropolitan borough councils have reduced their culture spend by £104m, or 28% since 2011, London has scaled back by £75m in the same period, whilst non-county unitary authorities have reduced expenditure by £41m in the same timeframe, according to the CCN.
District councils, which do not have responsibility for libraries, but share responsibility for museums and arts support with county councils, reduced their culture spend by £3.1m.
Philip Atkins, Conservative vice-chairman of CCN, and leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: “Whilst we accept this year’s finance settlement, the government must provide extra resource in the Spending Review and fairer funding for counties in the Fair Funding Review so we can preserve these highly valued services alongside delivering care.”
