Grassroots music venues in middle of ‘full-blown crisis’, Music Venue Trust tells Jeremy Hunt

The Music Venue Trust has written an urgent letter to the chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, asking him to address the dire state of the UK’s grassroots music venues.

The charitable organisation, which was launched in 2014 to help protect and support the hundreds of venues that play host to Britain’s emerging music talent, warned that the sector is in the middle of a “full-blown crisis”.

Grassroots music venues (GMV) frequently serve as a launch pad for emerging and up-and-coming talent, including some of Britain’s biggest stars such as Ed Sheeran and Lewis Capaldi.

A total 125 grassroots venues have been forced to close in the past 12 months, the MVT said, representing “the loss of 4,000 jobs, 14,250 events, 193,230 performance opportunities, £9m of income for musicians, and £59m in lost direct economic activity”.

“These were treasured places that bond our communities together, foster pride in the places we live, drive creativity and create aspiration,” the letter said.

“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.”

The organisation is now calling on Hunt to extend the existing 75 per cent business relief rate beyond April 2024 in his autumn statement, which will be presented to parliament on 22 November.

A 50 per cent business relief rate was originally introduced by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak in January 2020, which was then extended and increased to 100 per cent during the pandemic, then reduced to 75 per cent in last year’s autumn statement.

The MVT said that removing the current rates relief would increase costs to the grassroots sector by £15m, effectively plunging it “into the red”.

“Venues must and will close as a result,” the letter said. “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.”

The Independent has contacted Hunt’s representatives for comment.

Earlier this year, the MVT raised £2.2m as part of a bold plan to create a National Trust for grassroots music venues around the UK, in a fundraising drive backed by artists including Sheeran and singer-songwriter Frank Turner.

The campaign was launched in response to a statistic showing that 35 per cent of grassroots venues have closed in the past two decades. According to MVT’s chief executive Mark Davyd, 94 per cent of GMV were tenants with an average of 18 months left on their tenancies.

Along with Sheeran, Turner and a number of other musicians, plus 800 members of the public, the scheme is being backed by record labels Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music, and Amazon Music. Arts Council England also pledged a grant of £500,000, included in the £2.2m total.

In April, Arts Council England announced an additional £1.5m in funding for the grassroots live music sector. It was initially announced that the fund, which was launched in 2019, would come to an end after the 2022/23 financial year.

ACE, however, has confirmed that a “ring-fenced fund” of £1.5m will be available until the end of September 2023, after which there would be continued funding for the sector from a dedicated “ring-fenced priority” fund within the National Lottery Project Grants, until September 2025.