The Arts Council has announced that grant allocations to arts bodies are to be frozen for the fourth year in a row.

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It follows the £1.5m cut in the Art Council's budget, by the Government last year.

The news has been described by the outgoing Arts Council chairman, Lord Gowrie, as "the worst revenue crisis of my adult lifetime".

Lord Gowrie: "the worst revenue crisis of my adult lifetime"

The South Bank Board, Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Opera Company all lost out as their multi-million pound grants were too substantial to be spared the cuts, the Arts Council said.

But most arts organisations will get the same in cash terms as last year, and some organisations and Regional Arts Boards will get slightly more.

Lord Gowrie said: "I am disappointed that the Government could not see its way to holding our grant-in-aid at last year's level."

The acting secretary-general, Graham Devlin, said: "Although we hope the forthcoming changes to the Lottery rules will allow more flexibility for the arts funding system, they will not solve all our problems."

"After all, the arts have seen revenue funding cut in real terms by £34m since 1993," he said.

More than £112,000 has been trimmed from the South Bank Board's £13.3m allocation, £100,000 from the Royal Ballet's £6.56m, £54,720 from the Birmingham Royal Ballet's £5.47m, £31,200 from the English National Ballet, £9,800 from the Northern Ballet Theatre and £39,970 from the Royal Opera's £7.99m.

The English National Opera has escaped cuts because of a stabilisation plan, and the Royal National Theatre (£11.1m) and Royal Shakespeare Theatre (£8.47m) also have standstill funding.

But an extra £150,000 has been awarded to Birmingham's Ikon Gallery, which has also been expanded with a lottery grant.

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