Live music venues warn Starmer of 'devastating consequences' of tax changes

Tax changes announced successful the fund could person "devastating, unintended consequences" connected unrecorded euphony venues, including wide closures and occupation losses, commercialized bodies person warned.

The bodies, representing astir 1,000 unrecorded euphony venues, including grassroots sites arsenic good arsenic arenas specified arsenic the OVO Wembley Arena, The O2, and Co-op Live, are calling for an urgent rethink connected the chancellor's changes to the concern rates system.

If not, they pass that hundreds of venues could close, summons prices could increase, and thousands could suffer their jobs crossed the country.

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Business rates, which are a taxation connected commercialized properties successful England and Wales, are calculated done a analyzable look of the worth of the property, assessed by a authorities bureau each 3 years. That is past combined with a nationalist "multiplier" acceptable by the Treasury, giving a last currency amount.

The chancellor declared successful her fund code that though she is removing the concern rates discount for tiny hospitality businesses, they would payment from "permanently little taxation rates". The burden, she said, would alternatively beryllium shifted onto ample companies with large spaces, specified arsenic Amazon.

But some tiny and ample companies person seen the assessed values of their properties sprout up, which much than wipes retired immoderate discount connected the taxation complaint for tiny businesses, and volition spot the bills of arena spaces summation dramatically.

In the letter, coordinated by Live, the commercialized bodies constitute that the effect of Rachel Reeves's changes are "chilling", saying: "Hundreds of grassroots euphony venues volition adjacent successful the coming years arsenic revaluations thrust costs up. This volition deprive communities of invaluable taste spaces and bounds the UK originative sector's potential. These venues are wherever artists similar Ed Sheeran began their career.

"Ticket prices for consumers attending arena shows volition summation arsenic the melodramatic emergence successful arena's taxation costs volition apt trickle done to summons prices, undermining the government's ain efforts to combat the outgo of surviving crisis. Many of these arenas are seeing 100%+ increases successful their concern rates liability.

"Smaller arenas successful towns and cities crossed the UK volition teeter connected the borderline of closure, perchance resulting successful thousands of jobs losses and hollowing retired the taste spaces that support places thriving."

They spell connected to pass that the authorities volition "undermine its ain Industrial Strategy and Creative Sector Plan which committed to reducing barriers to maturation for unrecorded events", and volition besides trim spending successful hotels, bars, restaurants and different precocious thoroughfare businesses crossed the country.

To mitigate the interaction of the taxation changes, they are calling for an contiguous 40% discount connected concern rates for unrecorded venues, successful enactment with movie studios, arsenic good arsenic "fundamental reform" to the strategy utilized to worth commercialized properties successful the UK, and a "rapid inquiry" into however events spaces are valued.

In response, a Treasury spokesperson told Sky News: "With Covid enactment ending and valuations rising, immoderate euphony venues whitethorn look higher costs - truthful we person stepped successful to headdress bills with a £4.3bn enactment bundle and by keeping corp taxation astatine 25% - the lowest complaint successful the G7.

"For the euphony sector, we are besides relaxing impermanent admittance rules to chopped the outgo of bringing successful instrumentality for gigs, providing 40% orchestra taxation alleviation for unrecorded concerts, and investing up to £10m to enactment venues and unrecorded music."

The informing from the unrecorded euphony manufacture comes aft tiny retail, hospitality and leisure businesses warned of the imaginable for wide closures owed to the changes to the concern rates system.

Sky News reported aft the fund that the summation successful concern rates implicit the adjacent 3 years pursuing immense increases successful the assessed values of commercialized properties has near tiny retail, hospitality and leisure businesses questioning whether their businesses volition beryllium viable beyond April adjacent year.

Analysis by UK Hospitality, the commercialized assemblage that represents hospitality businesses, has recovered that implicit the adjacent 3 years, the mean pub volition wage an other £12,900 successful concern rates, adjacent with the transitional arrangements, portion an mean edifice volition spot its measure soar by £205,200.

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A Treasury spokesperson said their headdress for tiny businesses volition spot "a emblematic autarkic pub wage astir £4,800 little adjacent twelvemonth than they different would have".

"This comes connected apical of cutting licensing costs to assistance much venues connection pavement drinks and al fresco dining, maintaining our chopped to intoxicant work connected draught pints, and capping corp tax," they added.