Arts Council England is cutting its staff nationally by 24% and streamlining its nine regional offices to save £6.5m a year. The savings are to be reinvested in the arts.

“We need to truly become one organisation which is confident and ambitious and shares knowledge internally and externally” said ACE chief executive Alan Davey. “I want to create a culture that moves away from the false polarities of national versus regional; that has real ambition for the arts and what the arts can do, and knows how to realise it. This proposal outlines a new Arts Council where responsibilities are clear and creative input at all levels is encouraged.”

Administrative costs are to be reduced by 15% in the next year. The national office will remain in Westminster with ACE London moving in to share, and the nine regional arts councils are to be grouped together in four areas - North, Midlands and South West, and East and South East. Four area executive directors would sit on the main board, rather than the current nine regional executive directors.

There will also be a smaller head office; an executive board reduced from 14 to nine; a centralised “grants for the arts” team based in Manchester; and a redefined staff structure with a new focus on customer relations.

A period of formal consultation with all ACE employees has started and will run until May 26. Final plans will then be drawn up and submitted to the ACE National Council in July, and it is expected that all the changes will have been implemented by the end of March 2010.

“This proposal outlines a new Arts Council where responsibilities are clear and creative input at all levels is encouraged” Davey said.