English Chess Forum

Shortly after the Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded his Parliamentary statement on the Public Spending Review, a letter was received from Jonathan Hughes, Head of Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport as follows:

“2010 SPENDING REVIEW

“I write [...] to confirm that the Department’s grant to the English Chess Federation will cease from 31st March 2011.

“I appreciate that this is difficult news for you and the organisation but, unfortunately, the Department has had to make a number of difficult choices in order to meet our contribution to the Government’s plan for fiscal consolidation over the next four years. One of these choices has been drastically to reduce DCMS’ central programme budget, out of which your current annual £45,000 grant is paid.

“We have taken this decision in order to maximise funding for our Non-Departmental Public Bodies and limit the impact on their programmes, whether this funding for Olympic and Paralympic sports in the run-up to London 2012, or funding for grassroots sport, for example.”

Its disappointment at the loss of the grant notwithstanding, the ECF should like record its appreciation for the Department’s support for English chess over many years and for the considerate way in which the DCMS has handled the withdrawal of its funding. This has helped the Board to manage the transition so as to minimise the adverse effect upon English chess.

- Andrew Farthing, Chief Executive

Events have moved on since we started work in this area. In particular there seems little doubt now that the Grant is on the way out though it is anyone's guess whether it would go totally in one year or perhaps more likely be phased out over, say, a 3 year period

Phil Makepeace wrote:Obviously, this is very bad news, however predictable. But no topic is safe from satire.