The Government’s new Job Support Scheme will have "no impact" on the fight to save grassroots live music venues unless the Culture Recovery Fund is properly distributed, an industry body has warned.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced a follow-up to the furlough scheme — which is set to finish on October 31 — with plans to top up workers’ wages for up to a third of their hours.
It comes as the live music sector, which has been severely damaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, waits on the results of the Culture Recovery Fund — a Government-backed scheme that aims to prop up venues with £500m worth of grants.
The distribution of this fund will begin on October 5. According to Music Venue Trust (MVT), a body representing grassroots venues, the success of Mr Sunak’s latest initiative will depend entirely on whether the fund allows venues to reopen while adhering to the existing Covid-secure guidelines.
Music venues have been allowed to host indoor gigs since August 15, although many have cited the financial and physical impossibility of social distancing as a barrier to reopening.
In a statement, a spokesperson for MVT said: “The new job support programme is built around the premise of returning to work, and employers returning to some level of income arising from that work to support those workers. The Government has made it clear that it does not believe that the time is right for the live music industry to return to work, and where limited events, under substantial restrictions, are permitted, the income generated is insufficient to meet any of the government targets for employer contributions.”
The statement continued: “If the [Culture Recovery Fund] is distributed in such a way that it enables the live music industry to access the financial support being offered across the business sector, such as the employees protection programme, then today's measures contribute to the music industry's recovery.
“HM Government clearly believes, and expressed during today's DCMS questions in Parliament, that it will. If it does not, none of today's measures are accessible to the live music industry and none will have any impact.”
It comes after the Night-Time Industries Association welcomed the Job Support Scheme, but claimed more was needed from the Government to aid businesses that had been “unfairly targeted” by the newly introduced 10pm curfew.
