LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — Venue operators in the United Kingdom are applauding the government’s decision to reduce business tax rates by 50% for small and medium-sized Grassroots Music Venues.
According to the Music Venue Trust, an advocacy group for independent music venue operators, the tax reduction will release more than £1.7million back into the grassroots live music sector.
The average savings per venue across Wales and England will equate to an overhead reduction of £7,500 per year, MVT reported. The announcement about the tax break follows other victories for the sector including a new ring-fenced fund announced by Arts Council England in May 2019, which released £1.5million of subsidy into the sector.
As well, changes to the legal framework in which venues operate and changes to planning guidance, have created additional protections for music venues, which have been increasingly threatened by development and neighbors who lodge noise complaints.
The news is likely welcome among venue operators in the region as more than 35% of indie venues in the country have shuttered in the last decade per MVT.
“This latest announcement from Government is another foundation stone in the support Music Venue Trust is building so that we can deliver a vibrant, sustainable, world-class Grassroots Music Venue sector to artists and audiences. There’s still a lot to be done on this specific issue, and we look forward to working with the governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland to make sure that GMVs across the UK have a level playing field when it comes to Business Rates and Public Subsidies,” said Mark Davyd, CEO and Founder, Music Venue Trust.
“This issue can be tackled, and it needs a broad coalition of key stakeholders to do that. Government, the Cultural Sector and the live music industry have all acted in the last 12 months to address the crisis in this sector. It’s now time for recording, streaming and publishing interests to play their part. Billions of pounds in revenue are being generated in the music industry from the music that is tested, developed, finds its audience and emerges from these vital spaces. PRS for Music, PPL, Universal, Warners, Sony, Spotify, Apple, and Google now need to come to the table and tell us what they are going to do to make sure that continues to happen,” Davyd added.
