Live Music

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, on his epically superb speech. I declare my interest as a trustee of the KOKO Foundation. As all noble Lords know, KOKO is a fantastically cool music venue in Camden. In fact, it was made live music venue of the year.

Stemming from my involvement with KOKO, I want to make a point about businesses in general. KOKO has never received a penny of government money. Since its creation, it has created about 10,000 jobs, paid £80 million in taxes and helped the regeneration of the area. But the recent increase in NI means that KOKO now has to attract 4,000 additional customers a week in order to meet its NI bill. At the same time, KOKO has set aside £500,000 for the foundation to help local people; it works with the Department for Business and Trade in welcoming foreign Governments to look at hospitality; and it has helped in many other ways. My point is more general: every time the Government impose taxes on business, they are harming or impacting venues such as KOKO.

Everybody knows the importance of live music. The recent Harry Styles tour, for example, generated about £1.1 billion in revenue beyond the actual events. However, we cannot be complacent about the success of the major live music industry in the UK. We did not go ahead with the Sphere—that was nothing to do with this Government—but the London fireworks are falling behind. Major countries in the world see live music and events as central to diversifying their economy. It is incumbent on the Government and on local government to work more closely with the private sector.

I echo the points that have already been made about secondary ticketing and flag the point about visas for musicians, which is becoming a particularly thorny issue for many involved in the live music business.

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[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Twycross) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Brennan of Canton for initiating this important debate and all noble Lords for their valuable contributions. It is clear from the number of speakers how much passion and expertise there is among noble Lords for music. I may struggle to respond to all the points and questions during the debate but will follow up in writing where required. Unlike my noble friend Lady Hyde of Bemerton, however, I will not use lyrics to make my point. I think the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, might have got a few in as well.

There can be no doubt among noble Lords of my noble friend Lord Brennan’s passion, talent and expertise, both as a performer and as a staunch advocate for the music sector over many years. I have been told we cannot encourage him to use any excess time to entertain us in your Lordships’ House, but hopefully we will find another time in the near future.

To quote my noble friend, I agree that everyone’s lives are enriched when they gather with others to enjoy live music. The sheer joy brought by our country’s performers from popular music, through folk, country, rock and jazz to some of the foremost classical performers is unparalleled. This Government are committed to protecting one of our country’s most valued and valuable sectors.

As my noble friend Lady Dacres said, British music has changed not just this country but other countries around the world. That reflects what my noble friend Lady Gill said about the richness and diversity of music within our rich and diverse country.

I commend my noble friend Lord Brennan for his recent work chairing the fan-led review of live and electronic music, launched in the other place by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which the Government warmly welcome and which I thoroughly enjoyed looking through. Fans and music lovers are at the heart of our live music ecosystem. The Government will be responding to the report’s recommendations shortly, alongside our upcoming music plan, which I will come on to. I can commit to my noble friend, however, that we do not intend to let his report and the views of fans gather dust.

As many noble Lords mentioned, music is a fundamental part of our nation’s life, with human experience sparking inspiration. As my noble friend Lord Brennan said, there is a benefit to our general well-being and our mental well-being. It is also a universal language that connects us across generations, backgrounds and communities. It is vital that all fans, wherever they live, have access to live music. Whether it is thousands gathering for a mega stadium gig, as I did last night at Wembley to hear Shania Twain and Harry Styles—I was fortunate enough to be there—or neighbours packing out a local pub to hear a local band, live music fosters a powerful sense of community in all its forms, bringing different generations together in shared spaces. It deepens local pride, connects our communities and gives a powerful voice to our national story, not least to Wales, as my noble friend Lady Wilcox of Newport said.

I welcomed the example given by my noble friend of the importance and value of music in her hometown of Newport. Those points were echoed by my noble friend Lady MacLeod’s description of the festival in Skye. As the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, said, music strengthens our society.

A number of noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, and my noble friends Lady Wilcox, Lady Gill and Lady MacLeod, reflected on the positive economic impacts of live music. The music industry makes an incredible contribution to our economy; a record-breaking £8 billion in GVA in 2024 generated £4.8 billion in export revenues and supported over 220,000 jobs across the country. The suggestion that we use it to finance the defence plan is an interesting point made by the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, which I will pass on. Indeed, the Government’s industrial strategy explicitly identifies our creative industries as one of eight priority growth-driving sectors, fully backed by our 10-year creative industries sector plan to support long-term growth.

The noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, asked what the Government would do to work with the private sector. To fulfil our ambitions for the UK to be the best place in the world to create and invest in music, we are delivering on our commitment to a dedicated music plan. We will soon set out how this Government are working hand in hand with the industry to unlock talent, empower entrepreneurs and give our creative businesses the definitive conditions they need to thrive. We are backing this commitment with a landmark investment, our new £30 million music growth package, which more than doubles previous government funding for the music industry.

My noble friend Lord Brennan highlighted support for grass-roots music and a number of noble Lords spoke about the importance of strengthening our grass-roots infrastructure. We have this at the heart of our music growth package, alongside boosting domestic touring and expanding international exports. Ultimately, this will support at least 40,000 creators and professionals across the UK over the next three years. The noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, and my noble friends Lady Dacres and Lord Watson of Invergowrie also mentioned grass roots. Alongside government investment, there is a vital role for industry here, too. We are actively backing the live music sector’s £1 voluntary ticket contribution, led by the LIVE Trust, to ensure that success at the top is reinvested into the grass-roots spaces that forge our global headliners. In relation to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, I agree. We recognise the significant role played by charities and, indeed, the LIVE Trust is one of the foremost examples that the noble Baroness shared.

My noble friend Lord Brennan of Canton and other noble Lords asked what will happen if the industry fails to adopt the voluntary levy at scale. While we welcome the significant progress made by the LIVE Trust, we have been absolutely clear that we are prepared to explore legislative options if necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of our world-leading live music.

Noble Lords, including my noble friend Lady Keeley, raised creative education for our young people. The Government are committed to ensuring that every child has access to a quality creative education, with £13 million over three years for the National Centre for Arts and Music Education and our £37.8 million music and dance scheme. The noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, referred to the Every Child Can programme. DCMS is rebuilding opportunities through that £132.5 million programme, which will ensure that every young person has something to do, somewhere to go and someone who cares. That obviously includes access to music education—a point made by my noble friend Lady Keeley. The Government are committed to revitalising arts education, including music, through reform of the national curriculum. Arts Council England supports national youth music organisations to help talented young people from less privileged backgrounds access high-quality music and dance training.

The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, asked about strengthening the agent of change in planning policy to better protect grass-roots music venues from noise complaints. The Government are currently consulting on strengthening the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure consistent application of the agent of change principle by local authorities.

Noble Lords, including my noble friends Lady Hyde and Lady Gill and the noble Baronesses, Lady Wheatcroft and Lady Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, all raised issues arising post Brexit, including European touring. Helping touring artists is a manifesto commitment. The UK and European Commission have jointly committed to supporting UK-EU cultural exchange, specifically recognising the vital activities of touring artists at the inaugural UK-EU summit. It is very good to have the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, back to continue the debate on EU touring, artists and other matters that he has championed over the years.

Following the Prime Minister’s resignation, we have agreed with the EU that it will not be possible to go ahead with the summit on 22 July. We will, however, continue to discuss options with the EU for the summit to take place at the next and earliest opportunity. The noble Baroness, Lady Bonham-Carter, asked a range of EU-related questions. The only thing that I can say to the noble Baroness in this context is: please watch this space. I hope we will continue to discuss that and I hope I will be able to come back with some firm commitments at a later date.

My noble friend Lady Gill raised AI—I apologise if other noble Lords raised it. We are backing the sector with targeted investment while building safeguards around AI. We remain firmly committed to protecting creators while supporting AI innovation. We are launching a consultation on digital replicas later this year, establishing a taskforce on AI labelling and launching a working group for smaller creative organisations to drive progress.

Noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Brennan, raised secondary ticketing. We are tackling industrial-scale ticket touting head-on. Through our upcoming secondary ticketing legislation, we will destroy the touts’ business model once and for all, protecting hard-working fans from being ripped off. We are working at pace—a phrase I do not like, but I have said it out loud now—and I will continue to push for this to be published at the earliest stage, not least for the purpose of my response in the Sporting Events Bill. We are working at pace to publish a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in this Session to ensure that our measures are truly effective and, more importantly, enforceable and future-proof.

I appreciate the wealth of expertise illustrated in today’s debate and the commitment to making sure that our fantastic, world-class live music sector is supported. I look forward to future discussions, with my noble friend Lord Brennan and others, to take forward this agenda.

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, I know that the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, is going to sum up, because we have time.

Oh. Can we not use the remaining seven minutes for more points? I had such an incredible point to make.