Total National Lottery sales for the 2017/18 financial year increased by £26.4m to £6.95bn. Returns to National Lottery Good Causes were up £27m to £1.66bn, translating into a £331m return to the arts – a 1.7% increase on the year before. But the upswing is not strong enough to return to the highs of 2015/16, when £380m in lottery funding was directed to the arts.