Music Venue Trust calls for government help in open letter after 125 venues shut in 12 months
Calling on chancellor Jeremy Hunt to extend tax relief for independent venues, the CEO of the grassroots charity said the UK live music landscape is "as dire as it can be"
Music Venue Trust is urging the UK government to help grassroots live music venues remain open as more than 100 independent clubs have closed in the last year.
The grassroots music venue charity has written an open letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of his government budget announcement Autumn Statement on 22nd November. MVT is calling on the chancellor to extend the 75% business rates relief to its members, a taxation reduction scheme initially put in place in January 2020 by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak.
"The current 75% Rates Relief protects Grassroots Music Venues from an excessive and poorly reasoned taxation", MVT wrote. "Removing it would increase costs to the sector by £15 million. In 2022, the entire sector returned a profit margin of just 0.2%, £1 million in cash terms on a total turnover of £500 million".
MVT describes the dwindling landscape of independent live music venues and the effects on British culture and economy: "The Grassroots Music Sector is in the middle of a full-blown crisis. 125 venues have shut their doors for live music in the last 12 months, 15.7% of all such spaces in the UK. It 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".
In an interview with NME, MVT CEO Mark Davyd also called on the larger live music industry to support the smaller venues that nurture talent. "There’s going to have to be movement from the industry itself too", he said. "They can’t just sit around making oceans of money and declaring this to be the greatest year ever for live music, all while venues are closing down every day... If there are 20 per cent less venues to play in next year, then that will mean that some tours just can’t happen".
"These venues are all over the UK, and everything is in complete free-fall", Davyd said. "It’s as dire as it can be. It’s not possible to exaggerate it at this point".
Last month, the Night Time Industries Associate released a report that nearly one-third of UK clubs were forced to close between June 2020 and June 2023.
A 2022 report by the UK performance rights organisation PRS found that live music revenue dropped by 30% in 2021.
Read the open letter in full via MVT's Facebook.
