CAMPAIGNERS calling for Bradford to get its fair share of national arts cash have chalked up a major victory.

A total of £7m in Arts Council funding is heading to the district, representing a massive 65 per cent increase.

And three local organisations will join its National Portfolio - the top flight of cultural bodies in England.

Pete Massey, Arts Council England’s north director, said he hoped it would help make an “already great city even greater”.

He said: “We are thrilled to be able to increase our investment in the cultural life of Bradford and the wider district.

“Bradford already has some wonderful arts and culture organisations producing work of the highest quality and reaching a wide range of audiences, so we are really pleased to be able to continue to support them and to welcome new organisations into our portfolio.”

The funding boost comes after a four-year campaign for Bradford to get more cash from the Arts Council, amid accusations that it was giving too much of its money to London and ‘core cities’ like Leeds. In 2014, it emerged that Leeds was getting £110 per head from the Arts Council, compared to Bradford’s £10 per head.

Anne McNeill, director of the Impressions Gallery, one of the recipients of the funding, said Bradford was finally getting “what it had always deserved”.

She said: “There’s always been great art being produced in this city and it is now getting the spotlight shone on it and the funding it deserves.”

And she praised Bradford Council for leading the fight for more funding as well as its leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, for bringing former Arts Council chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette to the city in 2014 to press their case.

Yesterday, Cllr Hinchcliffe said she was “delighted to see the Arts Council increasing their investment significantly in Bradford”.

She said: “We have a good relationship with the Arts Council and I’ve already got a date in the diary to meet the new chair, Sir Nick Serota, later this year. He’s visiting Bradford early in the New Year when we can show off the talent they are investing in.”

The National Portfolio is the Arts Council’s long-term funding stream for established big-hitters.

In this funding round, worth £7m for Bradford from 2018 to 2022, Bradford’s eight existing National Portfolio organisations have been joined by three new ones.

One of the new additions is the Bradford Literature Festival, which has secured £1.2m over four years.

This year’s festival kicks off on Friday, with more than 300 events planned over 10 days.

Co-director Irna Qureshi said: “It means we are here to stay and it is a fantastic vote of confidence, given that in the grand scheme of things, we are a relatively new organisation.”

Another arts group added to the National Portfolio is Bradford-based Common Wealth Theatre, with a funding award of £580,000 over four years.

Theatre director Evie Manning said they were “over the moon” at the news.

She said: “The four year grant is a massive game-changer for us.”

And the Brontë Society is set for funding worth nearly £1m as it joins the National Portfolio. The society, which runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, will spend the cash over the next four years expanding its work among young people, new audiences and online.

Two Bradford arts organisations have seen their annual funding increased.

Manningham-based learning disabled theatre company Mind the Gap will see its annual grant go up by £40,000, in a package worth nearly £1m over four years.

And the University of Bradford’s Theatre in the Mill will see its annual grant jump from £40,000 to £120,000.

There was relief at south Asian arts organisation Kala Sangam, which saw its annual funding stay the same, after its grant was cut dramatically in the last funding round in 2014. The organisation, based in Forster Square, will keep receiving £100,000 a year.

Meanwhile, Ilkley Literature Festival, Bradford-based Freedom Studios, Artworks Creative Communities and Dance United Yorkshire have all seen their grants extended for four years, at the same level as before.