Inflexible short-term funding crippling Kew, Defra told

The UK government should provide a higher proportion of unrestricted funding for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and explain how it will ensure long-term security for the organisation, MPs have said.

In a report into the financial situation of Kew, published on 4 March, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee describes the government’s approach to managing the organisation as a “recipe for failure”.

In May 2014 Kew confirmed there was a £5-million gap in its 2014-15 budget, partly due to a decreased operating budget from its sponsor department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The shortfall led to a restructuring of the science directorate at Kew, along with 100 redundancies, almost 50 of whom were scientists.