Arts Council England is coming under scrutiny from government which has announced an inquiry into how it decides on grants and whether the geographic spread of its funding is fair.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee last week announced the inquiry into the funder which will distribute a total of £2.4bn of public and lottery money in the four years leading up to 2015. While it will review the Council as a whole, including its scope and scale, the Committee is particularly focusing on whether the current distribution of grants across the regions is fair and will be scrutinising the criteria the Council uses to make its funding decisions.

ACE funding is currently weighted towards London. In 2012/13 some 51 per cent of the Council’s public funding, and 45 per cent of its lottery funding, went to London, according to a report by Arts Professional released last October. The same Rebalancing our Cultural Capital report, however, found the London bias even more pronounced in DCMS’ own funding.

The Arts Council has welcomed the investigation, submissions to which will be received until 24 February.

Council chief executive Alan Davey said: “Arts Council England’s remit is to support great art for everyone. The arts ecology of England is complex and interrelated and there are inherent and long standing challenges in achieving our ambition – in reaching all parts of the country, rural and urban, cities and the suburbs and in reaching people from many different communities. To do this well, we need a strong and nationally connected arts infrastructure in our capital city as much as we need an equally strong and vibrant arts infrastructure in the regions.

“We look forward to discussing the detail of our investment criteria, and reflecting the scale of our ambition in delivering great art for everyone across England to the committee.”