Arts and Creative Industries: Freelancers and Self-employed Workers

Lord Watson of Invergowrie Excerpts

Thursday 15th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)]

My Lords, a two-minute speaking limit allows for not so much a speech as a comment, although the upside, I suppose, is that it is a result of so many noble Lords being passionate about the arts and creative industries. I congratulate the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, on securing the debate but, as he said, we need a fuller one very soon.

Freelancers make a major contribution to the creative sector and the performing arts and deserve meaningful support from the Government, particularly in skills policy. A freelancer visa to allow them to work abroad would be welcome and that must surely be one of the first initiatives of a commissioner, a position that is urgently required.

I want to focus on the crisis facing grass-roots music venues, on whose behalf the Music Venue Trust campaigns vigorously. So far this year, one music venue has closed every week across the UK. That is not because people are losing interest in music; there were 22 million audience visits to a gig in 2022. Over 30,000 people work in the sector and grass-roots music venues are the research and development department of the UK’s £5 billion a year music industry. Eight new arenas are proposed to open in the UK in the next five years, but there is no record of such venues making a financial investment in the pipeline. We have to ask why that is.

Football in England demonstrates what can be done to help develop the next generation: 15% of the Premier League’s central revenue goes to supporting clubs lower down the professional ladder, as well as the women’s game and wider grass-roots and community football. There is no good reason why the top end of the live music industry cannot do the same and reinvest in the talent and venues that are supporting it and supplying the next generation of performers.

Venues are suffering extreme hardship from unaffordable energy bills and other costs. Live music generates huge returns for the Treasury, yet currently 16% of the value of every ticket sold at a grass-roots venue event is lost to VAT, removing almost £5 million from the sector in potential investment in new and emerging talent. I say to the Minister that in this post-EU environment there is no impediment to the Government zero-rating VAT on ticketing for grass-roots music venues and they should do so as a matter of urgency.