MALVERN Theatres contributes about £5 million a year to the local economy, according to its chief executive.

Nic Lloyd's revelation follows a report from Arts Council England which says theatres are worth £2.6 billion a year to the UK.

Mr Lloyd said his figure was based on the £4.1 million a year the Arts Council reckons the Everyman Theatre contributes to the economy of Cheltenham.

"In terms of numbers of people and revenue, we do more because we have more seats," he said.

"One would then presume that would have a knock-on effect on the economic impact. I always reckoned we are in the region of £5 million."

Mr Lloyd said he would like to see an in-depth study of the theatres' impact, to provide a more accurate figure.

"I think it's something that should be done here, it would be in the interest of Malvern Hills to do this exercise," he said.

Reacting to the national report, Mr Lloyd said it was interesting that the impact of theatres was not reflected in funding and hoped this would now be redressed by funding bodies.

"What a loss it would be to the economy if through lack of funding they (theatres) fell through," he said.

"This is ammunition for us to go to the funders and say 'do you not think you should put together your own study so you understand what the impact is on this particular town?' It's one way of proving the value of subsidy in hard fact.

"I think it's been a very valuable exercise. The people that pay for the subsidy need to understand."

Lee Robson, head of community and economic development at Malvern Hills District Council, said he would discuss with Mr Lloyd the idea of commissioning an in-depth study at a meeting of the theatres' board on Monday (May 17).

"The theatre is clearly an important source of income to the area," he said. "We'd be happy to work with them to get a bit more science behind this. One of the tests of services we provide is trying to realise the public value, it's a task we need to try a lot harder with."