How the North West’s most popular theatre could struggle to pay soaring £1m energy bills

The boss of Salford’s Lowry theatre has warned it could cost almost £1m to keep it going through the winter because of tripling energy costs.

Chief executive Julia Fawcett said energy costs were ‘substantially’ more than its £860,000 annual Arts Council grant.

She said: “Compared to the previous year we’re projecting that The Lowry’s electricity bill for the year 2022/23 will have increased threefold.

“To give an idea of the scale of this increase, this amount is substantially more than the figure The Lowry receives annually from Arts Council England’s National Portfolio funding programme.”

She said The Lowry operates a “successful, largely self-sufficient model”, highly reliant on earned and contributed income (93%) receiving 6.3 % total funding from the Arts Council England, Salford City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

She went on: “We are an anchor institution, the most visited cultural venue in the North West with 850,000 visitors a year and we generate £30 million gross value added GVA per year.

“We’re home to the LS Lowry collection and we present/commission more than 900 productions annually across all genres. Our business model is flexible and built for resilience, allowing us to pivot when needed and in the face of external changes.”

Ms Fawcett declined to reveal the exact projected electricity costs because the theatre was working actively to renegotiate contracts and suppliers.

She added: “Public funding supports our artistic programme that brings together performing arts with world-class partnerships to deliver an unparalleled range of live performances across our three theatres; exciting and challenging contemporary visual arts exhibitions alongside the largest LS Lowry collection in the world and our extensive learning & engagement, participation.”