Written - Wales Millennium Centre

On 7 November I announced in plenary that the Assembly Government had decided that additional funding would be provided to the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) to secure its financial stability. The purpose of this statement is to provide Members with a further report on progress achieved since that date.

The funding agreement governing the public funding we are providing to the WMC for the period up until 1 April 2011 has now been signed by the Welsh Assembly Government and the WMC. The agreement covers the £10.1million in revenue funding being made available over the next three financial years in addition to the £1million paid to the WMC in December 2007. The agreement, which contains arrangements for rigorous financial monitoring including stretching key performance indicators and commercial targets, also makes clear the public benefits our investment is intended to secure.

We will be shortly commissioning an independent review of governance arrangements of the WMC, which I also announced last November. The review is an integral part of the due diligence procedures to which the Welsh Assembly Government is committed when investing substantial sums of public money in a project of this nature.

I am pleased to say that agreement has also been reached on a new “creative vision” between the WMC and its resident organisations. This ambitious programme demonstrates how the co-location of so many creative organisations in one place can provide a stimulus for exciting collaborative productions and activities.

The relationship between WMC and Welsh National Opera is at the heart of the creative vision for the Centre and its residents. The WMC has now reached agreement with Welsh National Opera over the sale of its John Street premises. This makes explicit the financial contribution which will be forthcoming once the sale is completed. There have also been constructive discussions on the extent to which the WNO needs to use the WMC for rehearsals (the so called “dark nights” issue). WNO’s requirements are now for fewer dark nights than the contractual obligations require. The preliminary discussions between the two organisations have generated important evidence to feed into future funding discussions between WMC and Government and WNO and the Arts Council.