The Arts Council will get a £2 million funding increase, bringing its Exchequer grant to £28 million, an 8 per cent increase on this year's figure. This represents a slowing down in funding. Last year the allocation rose by £5.16 million, an increase of 25 per cent. When the Arts Council made its first three-year plan it thought the £26 million figure would be reached in 1997. It had to reschedule the plan to run over five years when insufficient funding was secured from the last government in successive budgets.