"Modest investment producing extraordinary success"

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New institutions have opened and old ones have been re-created. Audiences are growing and there is outstanding educational work.

We have great artists, musicians, actors, writers and dancers. It is a good news story based on the support for the arts, both from government and the private sector.

The question now is how we ensure the story continues and gets better. From our major cultural institutions to small community projects, there's a capacity to take things further.

We're not at the end point in terms of what we can achieve: this is just mid-way. But it will be impossible to take the story further if we do not get continued investment.

There are several reasons it is needed. There are the raw economics of how many people come to visit this country and spend money here because of the plays, exhibitions and range of music we offer.

But the indirect economic benefit is that the arts are at the centre of making London one of the great cities of the world. Firms want to come here, knowing they can attract the very best staff. Equally important is the fundamental question of what kind of society we want. Artists and the cultural industries cannot suddenly make a society where people do not commit crimes. But I am clear that museums and galleries play a part in improving society, encouraging wider engagement and learning, whether about climate change or international exchange.

I lead a museum which used to have more than 80 per cent of its costs covered by government whereas that figure now is 50 per cent. Everyone in the arts over the past decade has become more skilled in getting the books to balance and finding ways to access private sector contributions.

We are happy to run these complex businesses, but what we need from the Government is continuity of support and investment. We need to be able to plan and build on what has been achieved.

The arts are an extraordinarily effective public investment and, compared with the economy as a whole, modest in scale.