Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Prescription of Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Regulations 2026

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Grand Committee

We are risking the loss of world-class cultural infrastructure. As UK Music warns, without our studios we miss out on finding the next Adele and we lose our soft power to the US or Europe. We cannot let a rigid definition of retail silence the British music industry.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

It might be helpful to the Committee if I explain that we are considering only the first Motion on the agenda at this time. I shall call the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, to move his Motion when we have concluded this debate. We are debating them both, but we can take only one at a time. The one that we are taking now is the first Motion from the noble Lord, Lord Livermore, but the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has been in order by speaking to his Motion, because it has been grouped with the government Motion.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, I am very pleased that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has called this debate, which is so important for the arts. He has summarised the arguments extremely well. I am grateful, too, to the noble Lord, Lord Livermore, for his introduction.

I am grateful for the briefings from both the Music Producers Guild and UK Music. I am particularly grateful for the conversation I had last week with Gaby Grafftey-Smith, who runs the prestigious Angelic Studios in Northamptonshire. Angelic was founded by musician Toby Smith of Jamiroquai—

“by a musician for musicians”,

as its website eloquently puts it. Since 2017, when Toby Smith sadly died, the studio has been run by Gaby. One of the first things that she told me was that no one runs a studio to make money; they do so out of a passion for music. It is less a business and much more a vocation. The artists and technicians themselves build up the heritage. A studio develops organically in a creative manner. In terms of business, the margins are tight, as the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, said, and there is a ceiling on income, because only so many artists can be booked. The space itself often has to be for the desired sound, which may be created by choirs or a grand piano—a big space.

It is also precious. Gaby talks about the precise mix of cultural and technical specification that make up her recording studio and others. Trust is built up over time between the studio recording engineer and artist. Each recording studio will have a different character and a different sound; they are all individual. She told me about a drummer for a well-known band, who, having tried different studios across the country, has said that her studio is the only one that provides the right environment for the particular sound that the drummer is trying to achieve.

Angelic is also one of a few key residential studios, which further cements the crucial relationship between artist and studio. In particular, for major stars such as Harry Styles or Black Sabbath, it means, as Gaby puts it,

“a unique, rural, isolated space to work”.

If such artists cannot find such spaces in the UK, we will lose these stars to America. By their very nature, they are not spaces where public access is appropriate, but, as the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, said, they can nevertheless be used by anyone.

Like other studios, Angelic also has an apprenticeship scheme, but Gaby points out that, if recording studios cannot afford to take on those who are learning what is a key craft in the music recording industry, those who come into the industry in the future are much more likely to be from a moneyed background. That is an effect that the Government ought to think hard about. The major effect would of course be on the artists themselves, with artists turning to studios in other countries, such as in New York or Paris, in the event of studios closing or booking charges increasing. Just as worrying is the possibility that new British artists would not get a rung on the ladder or be able to record in a professional environment alongside established musicians.

Like all recording studios, Angelic is extremely worried about the increase in business rates. The Music Producers Guild reports that, for Angelic, that increase would be 48%—slightly higher than the average predicted increase of 45%, itself a massive increase. On business rates, Gaby believes that, for the reasons that I have laid out, studios should have their own category and be linked to yearly turnover, rather than a square-footage rateable value. I have described the character of one recording studio to show how much creative effort goes into the provision of one important specialist facility that cannot be expected to grow and diversify like an ordinary office-based business—it grows in a different way.

It ought to be pointed out here that Abbey Road, with its mixed portfolio, is, for obvious reasons, an outlier. Abbey Road is far and away the most famous recording studios in the world and a tourist attraction, so identified is it globally with the Beatles—although, of course, those studios also have a remarkable classical legacy that stretches back to Elgar, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, will well know.

I hope that this debate will make it very clear how much our recording studios are as much critical creative infrastructure for the music industry as film studios are for the film industry. Yet film studios receive 40% relief on business rates without, of course, needing any public access. The loss of a single recording studio would be tragic, but the loss of possibly up to half of our recording studios would be catastrophic—a tragedy that would be writ large on the music industry.

--- Later in debate ---

We had a very helpful Question two weeks ago in the Chamber, asked by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton. The Minister responded to it very generously, offering a meeting with the noble Lord. I do not know if that has taken place yet, but in my intervention in that exchange I said that it might be helpful if he could broaden the discussion to include the Valuation Office Agency. As we heard in a number of contributions today, at the heart of what underlies the concern that many of us have is that the VOA is making assumptions based on flawed methodology. We have heard about some of the concerns that have been raised, such as that a recording studio has to have thick walls to keep the noise in and out, and these are being charged as commercial spaces. Similarly, for grass-roots music venues, storage areas for sound equipment, the back room, the green rooms and so much more are wrongly being counted as commercial space, when they are not.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, but a Division has been called. We look forward to hearing from him again in about 10 minutes.