Director of Campaign for the Arts Jack Gamble welcomed the parts of the budget that would boost the sector, including business rates changes and the confirmation of new local powers that could benefit culture “if they are used well”, such as the visitor levies.

However, Gamble said the budget “did nothing to reverse the long-term, overall decline in public investment in culture, and the spending plans it leaves in place point to a further squeeze”.

He added: “The Chancellor said he wants to ‘reject crude cuts’ that ‘drive up costs elsewhere in the system’. He is right, and cuts to culture are a case in point: their costs are felt in people’s wellbeing, in the vibrancy of local communities and in our social fabric.”

Many of Healey’s more difficult decisions regarding defence and welfare have been pushed back to next year’s Spending Review, in which Gamble hopes Healey will keep culture in mind.

The Campaign for the Arts also hopes culture will be included in the government’s highly-anticipated ten year plan, expected later this year, the petition for which has now reached more than 50,000 signatures.