Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of (1) the number of (a) regional, and (b) local, theatres that have permanently closed, and (2) the number of local authority areas that have lost their only performance venue, since March 2020.

14% of theatres in the UK are directly operated by local authorities and many more are owned by and subsidised by local authorities.

The Theatres Trust has provided details of six theatre buildings where the operator has either withdrawn from their operating contract or gone into liquidation, leaving them without an operator since the start of the pandemic. These theatres are not necessarily closed permanently as efforts are progressing to identify new operators. DCMS does not collect any further data in this area.

In January, the Chancellor announced £4.6 billion in one-off top up grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the Spring. This is in addition to £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities, and Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month. So far, more than £1 billion has been allocated to thousands of organisations including theatres.

Theatres have also benefited from the Cultural Recovery Fund. To date, over £1.2 billion has been allocated from this fund, reaching over 5000 individual organisations and sites. Of this funding, awards with a value of over £183m were made to applicants whose main artform is ‘theatre’ in Round 1 recovery grant funding, and in Round 2 almost £60 million was awarded to help theatres survive and plan for reopening.

The Chancellor also announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million to support theatres, museums and other cultural organisations in England through the Culture Recovery Fund. This extra funding, together with other cultural support such as funding for our national museums, means that our total support package for culture during the pandemic is now approaching £2bn.

The Government has also extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and the continued reduction in VAT, among other measures.