“The new watchword must be consolidation, rather than expansion; we’ve had an unprecedented level of investment in bricks and mortar for the arts, now we need to hunker down and make the most of them. The £100million-plus grands projets still on the drawing board – such as the ambitious developments of the Tate, British Museum and V&A sites – will have to be shelved, and pie-in-the-sky fantasies like the free theatre ticket scheme and the Royal Opera House’s annual sojourn to Manchester should be dumped.”