By Monk
The body representing independent grassroots music venues has called on the Chancellor Of The Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, to extend the existing 75 per cent Business Rate Relief available to grassroots music venues in England and Wales beyond April 2024 in his forthcoming Autumn statement.
In an open letter to the Chancellor, the Music Venue Trust has appealed to him to help a sector it describes as being in “the middle of a full-blown crisis”. In a barrage of irrefutable facts aimed at 11 Downing Street, the Trust points out that 125 venues have shut their doors for live music in the last 12 months, representing 15.7 per cent of all such spaces in the UK. This, says the Trust, represents the loss of 4,000 jobs, 14,250 events, 193,230 performance opportunities, £9 million of income for musicians and £59 million in lost direct economic activity.
The Trust letter affirms that “fewer venues is an immediate economic, social, and cultural blow to the 125 local communities that have lost access to live music.
“These were treasured places that bond our communities together, foster pride in the places we live, drive creativity and create aspiration.
“For the British music economy, an area of the creative industries in which we are world leaders, this is 15.7 per cent fewer research and development opportunities to support the next wave of British talent.”
Hitting directly at the heart of the Government’s cultural development strategy, the MVT continues:
“The Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, Lucy Frazer, recognised the essential R&D [research and development] role that grassroots music venues play in the DCMS Creative Industries Sector Vision in July 2023. In that report, DCMS invested an additional £5 million into Arts Council England’s ‘Supporting Grassroots Live Music’ fund specifically to support the grassroots sector because of its vital R&D role.
“In January 2020, prior to the pandemic, Rishi Sunak created a special 50 per cent Business Rates relief for grassroots music venues which recognized the importance of these spaces. The Prime Minister, when he was Chancellor, chose to acknowledge that the current Business Rates system is an egregious and inequitable tax on grassroots music venues that needs reform. Knowing that reform would take time, he chose to reduce the business rate bills faced by grassroots music venues by 50 per cent. That relief was extended to 100 per cent during the pandemic, then reduced to 75 per cent in the post pandemic economic climate.
“The current 75 per cent rates relief protects grassroots music venues from an excessive and poorly reasoned taxation. Removing it would increase costs to the sector by £15 million. In 2022, the entire sector returned a profit margin of just 0.2 per cent, £1million in cash terms on a total turnover of £500 million.
“If you remove the rates relief, you will plunge the entire grassroots sector into the red.
“Venues must and will close as a result. Even more local communities will lose their access to live music. Artists will have nowhere to start their careers. More job losses, less economic activity, less research and development. The UK risks producing fewer world-beating artists as a direct result of the decision you make on this issue in your Autumn Statement.
“You have said you don’t have the economic conditions to consider tax cuts. Grassroots music venues don’t have the economic conditions to allow tax rises.”
We should point out that this business rates relief scheme is not available in Northern Ireland, where Über Rock is based and continues its own fight for the grassroots music business. The finances for it have been released to the devolved administration but, with the NI Assembly still in self-enforced hiatus, civil servants, who are in control of the purse strings, are using the funding to meet other budgetary deficiencies. Fortunately, our grassroots venues are fighting on, and will continue to do so \m/