Arts Council England’s spending was down from £792m in 2012/13 to £642m in 2013/14, according to accounts filed this week with the Charity Commission.

The Arts Council is a statutory funder of arts organisations, and receives most of its money from a grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture Media and Sport and from Lottery funding.

The DCMS gave the Arts Council £461m, £8m less than the previous year. The National Lottery gave the Arts Council £173m, down from £317m the previous year.

Total income fell by almost £50m in the year, but the charity still made a net surplus of £52m, compared to a £55m loss the previous year, because of the level of its spending cuts.

The charity topped up its reserves from £89m at the end of 2012/13 to £155m at the end of 2013/14.

Alan Davey, chief executive of the Arts Council, described the 5 per cent cut in government funding as the “best case scenario, and recognition of the strong case we made for the economic value of the arts sector” in his introduction.

In July the Arts Council cut funding to a number of high-profile organisations, including English National Opera, when it announced three-year funding settlements.

Following a staffing restructure in 2013, 171 staff were made redundant when posts were deleted or contracts expired.

Davey received £186,000 in total remuneration, down by £1,000 on the previous year.