Although since the Govt says that the funds will be ring-fenced and it will be run without Govt involvement... in what way is that different (and therefore cheaper) than we have already?

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/131341-plr-administering-body-to-be-abolished.html

Emma

Who knows? All very worrying.

That's really worrying - and crazy, too, as the Arts is such a tiny proportion of public spending.

Update from the Society of Authors:

Given the news coverage in today's papers, you might reasonably have assumed that PLR payments are to be abolished. However, PLR remains a statutory right conferred on authors. Its funding over the next four years, on which we have been lobbying, will be announced soon as part of the Spending Review.

We heard yesterday from Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, that the administration of PLR is to be ‘transferred to another existing body, effectively abolishing PLR as a separate organisation’. You can see his letter and our critical comments on our website http://www.societyofauthors.org/soa-news/possible-threat-plr.

The changes announced by the government are said to be intended to increase ‘accountability and efficiency’. Switching responsibility for PLR from the PLR Office to another body will do neither.

You will gather that we think that this misconceived proposal has been prompted solely by the government’s desire to add to its list of organisations to be abolished. We are planning to meet officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport as soon as possible.

While on the subject of campaigning, you might like to know that we have on our website a list of campaigns being organised by others which relate directly to areas of concern to writers: http://www.societyofauthors.org/soa-news/current-campaigns.

Mary Hoffman has blogged about this here

http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2010/10/people-love-reading-or-please-listen.html

Will PLR last another four years?