Arts Council England (ACE) has revealed its 'implementation plan' that has been agreed in order to deal with 29.6 cut to its budget as announced by the government.

Following a meeting of the National Council, the organisation is to reduce the grant-in-aid budget from the current £449m baseline to £349m by 2015 - a real-terms cut of £457m over four years. The amount of money available for regularly funded organisations will be cut by 14.9 per cent in real terms by 2014-15, while there is nearly 7 per cent in across-the-board cash cuts in 2011-12.

"Significant cuts" are planned to the funding of Arts and Business, which will receive no core funding after 2012, while the Creativity, Culture and Education budget is to be reduced by half. ACE also plans reduce operational cost by 50 per cent by 2015. ACE chair Dame Liz Forgan said: "These are severe cuts, made worse by the fact that around 80 per cent of them have to come in the first two years of the settlement.

"We are determined to lead the arts through this tough period, using all our knowledge, expertise, and brokering skills, and drawing on the resourcefulness and imagination around us." ACE has announced that the year ending April 2012 will be seen as a "transitional year", implementing the 6.9 per cent cut across-the-board.

The period between April 2012 and April 2015 will see decisions made on the basis of a new funding programme for organisations. Arts and Business chief executive Colin Tweedy said: "We will receive £1.92m for one year only for 2011/2012. This is a 50 per cent cut. We will have no core funding after April 2012.

"To many of our private sector partners it will seem that our country has no strategy, no vision and no understanding of the needs of frontline arts fundraisers for an independent voice."