Cabe, English Heritage and the Tate Gallery are being asked to cut a combined £7 million from their budgets this year as part of the government’s £6.2 billion in spending cuts.

The axe will fall immediately and cover the current financial year – which ends next April.

An emergency budget in June and a spending review planned for autumn are expected to detail further ways the government will tackle the UK’s budget deficit which stands at £156 billion.

Cabe, which is jointly funded by the Department for Culture Media & Sport and the Department for Communities & Local Government, will be asked to cut £800,000 from its budget this year with chief executive Richard Simmons expected to receive confirmation of the figure later this week.

All government departments have been asked to make savings of 3% and a DCMS spokesman told BD that Cabe will be asked be save £600,000 from the budget it is set to receive from the department this year. It will lose an additional £200,000 in funding from its £6.7 million budget from CLG.

Under the 3% cuts, English Heritage will lose £4.2 million from its budget of £141.3 million while Tate Gallery will be asked to lop off £2.1 million from its £82.1 million.

Organisations such as Cabe are allocated their funding on a month-by –month basis, meaning upcoming plans face a hasty rewrite.

The DCLG is facing cuts of £780 million – the biggest faced by any government department other than the Department for Business, which will lose £836 million.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “We simply cannot afford to increase public debt at the rate of £3 billion each week. Our huge public debts threatened financial stability and if left unchecked would derail the economic recovery.

“Public borrowing is only taxation deferred and it would be deeply irresponsible to continue to accumulate vast debts that would have to be paid off by our children and our grandchildren for many decades to come.”

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