Live Music

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, on securing this debate. I was fortunate to chair the committee looking into the Licensing Act 2003, where we heard powerful evidence that grass-roots venues were closing owing to the failure in this country, particularly in England, to properly implement the agent of change principle.

The agent of change principle is basic and easy to understand, but it is not followed in practice. We need to have it comprehensively implemented in England and put on a similar statutory basis as exists in Scotland. It is neither acceptable nor satisfactory that Section 106 guidance is seen as a substitute. The starting point is that agent of change is a practical response to a long-recognised defect in the way that British planning, licensing and nuisance regimes interact. The structural problem sits within a wider change in how land is used. The trend now is towards dense urban living, brownfield regeneration and intensified mixed-use development, which has made these conflicts more common. That is why the central question before us now is not whether the Government accept the principle of agent of change in the abstract, which they clearly do, but whether they are willing to move from soft policy to hard law.

I submit just one argument to the Minister today. In Scotland, the provision is limited in law to noise-sensitive development and noise sources, but they now at least have an established statutory basis. We need to move in England from applying the agent of change principle in policy and guidance only to putting it on a firm statutory basis, protecting existing lawful uses from unreasonable restrictions arising from sustainable development. That is the very least we can do for the music industry and grass-roots venues.