Music world reacts to Rishi Sunak’s budget: “We urge the government to look at this again”
nme.comcoronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and to ease the current cost of living crisis in the UK.In a statement following the announcement, the Music Venue Trust said that it “warmly welcomes the Business Rates discount, which will maintain the 50 per cent Business Rates for grassroots music venues that the government announced pre-pandemic.”It continued: “However, with no action for businesses on energy bills, or NI liability, or VAT or any support for the sector to recover from the crisis, the outcome of the budget is that none of the extraordinary financial pressures being placed on venues have been mitigated or alleviated.“This budget has failed to respond to inflationary increases from rent, supplies, & services running in excess of 20% across the sector.
Cuts and price increases are therefore inevitable.”The MVT went on to call on Nadine Dorries – the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – to “enter into meaningful discussions with the live music industry to create R&D tax incentives/financial support to realise that ambition”.Michael Kill – CEO of the Night Time Industries Association – has also shared a statement in response to the Chancellor’s plans, which he said “lacked the kind of support the sector needs if it is to fully recover from the pandemic amid an unprecedented cost of living crisis”.He continued: “The cost of living crisis is really starting to bite – millions of consumers are quite clearly going to struggle to pay household bills over the coming months, which will have a direct impact on our industry, particularly independant and SME businesses across the UK.”Kill said that it’s important for there to be clarity in regards to “what cost inflation means for.
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