By Monk
The charity that works to protect, secure and improve grassroots music venues across the ÜK has welcomed the announcement that pubs and live venues in England to are to receive help with their business rates.
Treasury Minister Dan Tomlinson today (Tuesday 27 January) announced that pubs and music venues would receive a 15 per cent reduction in their business rates bills from 1 April, with no increases for the next two financial years.
The Music Venue Trust, which has been campaigning for business rates relief for thousands of struggling venues, many of which are operating on profit margins of 2.5 per cent or less, has welcomed the announcement – but has called for the measure to be introduced across the rest of the ÜK as a matter of urgency.
The Trust’s statement said:
We want to thank MPs, Mayors, unitary and local authorities, and especially music fans and communities across the country who have spoken up on this issue and ensured that Grassroots Music Venues are included in the immediate relief.
We will be exploring with our Music Venues Alliance venue members if the proposed 15 per cent reduction in rates payable, followed by a freeze for two years, is sufficient to manage this crisis, which threatened to close hundreds of venues in the next three years.
There is a commitment to review the calculations at the core of this issue, and we will fully support that review of rateable values.
Grassroots Music Venues, and other crucial parts of the music ecosystem such as recording studios and rehearsal spaces, require a specific valuation process that recognises their cultural and community value and we hope this review can deliver that.
Attention now turns to venues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the same core issue – extreme revaluations of cultural spaces resulting in unaffordable rates demands – need to urgently be addressed.
Über Röck has contacted the Department of Finance in Belfast for comment on any plans to introduce a similar initiative in Northern Ireland.