{"id":527287,"date":"2026-04-12T18:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527287\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:45:27","slug":"exclusive-national-gallery-meets-voluntary-redundancy-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527287\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: National Gallery meets voluntary redundancy targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Gallery has succeeded in meeting its targets with a \u201cvoluntary exit (VE) scheme\u201d intended to reduce a forecast deficit in the 2026\/27 financial year of \u00a38.2 million.<\/p>\n

The voluntary redundancy process<\/a>, offered to National Gallery and National Gallery Global staff, has generated \u201csavings of approximately \u00a31.5m\u201d, a spokesperson told Arts Professional, with \u201ca further \u00a30.5m achieved through the recruitment pause\u201d.<\/p>\n

The gallery originally said it believed the scheme would save \u201caround \u00a32.6-\u00a33m on staff costs\u201d, depending on who applied for redundancy, after which the numbers would inform \u201cexactly what activities\u201d would need to be stopped in the rest of its operations.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the \u201csuccess\u201d of the scheme, which ended on 17 March, has enabled the gallery \u201cto make progress\u201d towards its aims.<\/p>\n

Taking the savings from voluntary redundancies and the recruitment pause together, \u201cthis means we have delivered the targeted \u00a32m in savings that we set out to achieve through the VE scheme,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

When the process was revealed, a representative said the gallery had been trying \u201cfor a long time to mitigate the financial pressures\u201d it faced in its day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFactors such as inflation, along with rises in energy prices and National Insurance whilst our Grant in Aid remains static, means we have now reached a point where we must make difficult and painful decisions,\u201d they had said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Gallery cannot remain operationally secure without a strategic reset. To achieve sustainability, we must balance our artistic and educational mission with a new operating structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this is hard, but we all must understand that things have changed in the world, and we must respond to them.\u00a0We need to make tough decisions now to futureproof the gallery for the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gallery has not revealed how many staff members took the voluntary redundancy last month.<\/p>\n

\u2018Part of our solution to safeguard our future\u2019<\/p>\n

This week, the National Gallery announced it had chosen Tokyo-based firm Kengo Kuma as the architects to lead on its multi-million pound development project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The funds raised for Project Domani, which will see an extension out into the space between Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, include the two largest publicly reported single cash donations to a museum or gallery in the world \u2013 \u00a3150m each from charitable foundation Crankstart and the Julia Rausing Trust.<\/p>\n

However, the endowments are ring-fenced for the development.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the gallery previously told Arts Professional Project Domani is \u201cnot part of the issues the gallery is now facing\u201d but remains \u201cvery much part of our solution to safeguard our future\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the VE scheme was originally announced, the gallery said it was still \u201clooking at\u201d its options and awaiting the outcome before deciding what cost-cutting decisions would be made.<\/p>\n

It said it would look to \u201careas of proposed big spending to make cuts \u2013 such as public programmes \u2013 and activities where for a number of reasons beyond our control, we can no longer justify their costs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Aiming to save \u00a38.2m in total, the gallery set out its actions: \u201creduce some activity, reduce some staff\u201d and \u201cincrease income growing opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Gallery has succeeded in meeting its targets with a \u201cvoluntary exit (VE) scheme\u201d intended to reduce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-527287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}