THE DIRECTOR
£100,000? A small sum in many ways
The director of Glasgow School of Art called £100,000 “a small sum in many ways” in an email to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
Professor Tom Inns wrote to the SFC in January 2016 to complain that the UK Government was withholding a £5 million donation for rebuilding the Mackintosh building. He said that, if the school had received the money earlier, it would have accrued up to £100,000 in interest, adding it was a “small sum in many ways but not inconsequential”.
He also sent an email to the SFC – an education-funding quango – saying he was “reframing” a fundraising drive for the Mackintosh building weeks after getting an insurance payout.
The Sunday Post can reveal details of the principle payout and how the school’s plans changed for the first time after obtaining 48 pages of emails between the school and public bodies.
Royal Sun Alliance, the main insurers, paid more than £45m to the GSA after negotiations were concluded, while accounts suggest another £4.3m was received from another insurer. Professor Inns, who stood down suddenly from the GSA last year, wrote to the SFC to say they had received a “very fair and helpful settlement”.
He said the GSA was keen to expand its campus to deal with increasing student numbers, and buying the former Stow College building had been identified as a solution.
The purchase could be financed through a “portfolio of sources”.
By 2016, the GSA’S original plans to raise up to £35m to restore The Mack had morphed into a £80m plan to transform the campus, including the Stow purchase.
Professor Inns said: “GSA plans to make a public statement/relaunch its Mackintosh appeal towards the end of March 2016.
“This will slightly reframe exactly what the GSA needs external funding for. “The Stow College development plans are integral to restoration of the
Mackintosh building.”