Culture secretary Andy Burnham has warned arts organisations to brace themselves for possible cuts in 2010. Burnham said that the cultural industries were not immune from the government’s savings drives, and should start making contingency plans in case funding is cut next year.

His comments came after persistent rumours that the Comprehensive Spending Review of 2007, which had been surprisingly generous to the arts and heritage, could be revised because of the global financial crisis.

He said his message was not ‘telling people to put everything on hold’, but that ‘in the climate we’re in, rightly, the Treasury is saying for every pound of investment we receive we’re going to have to secure maximum return in terms of impact in the economy’.

However, he added: ‘While I am the person who has to relay that message to the arts world, I can also assure the arts world that I will relay an equally vociferous message back to government, that the relatively small amount of funding here produces a huge amount of benefit, not just socially, educationally, culturally, but also economically.’

The 2007 settlement gave the Arts Council a £20m boost over the following three years, but the main increase would be in the last fiscal year, 2010/11. A cut back in the ACE grant could mean a grant only keeping pace with inflation.

A DCMS spokesman added: ‘Our response to the economic downturn has to be realistic and we have to assess the situation as it develops. The Chancellor’s Pre Budget Report announced £5bn of efficiency savings to be delivered across government. We certainly cannot expect further cash from the Treasury during the current spending review period and we will need to look carefully at whether we are getting maximum benefit from our current expenditure plans. We are not there yet, but realistically government, and the cultural sector in general, may need to be ready to take some tough choices about priorities for funding.’