News: Severe Anxiety In The Music Industry As Parts Of UK Culture Recovery Fund Delayed

As the music industry finds itself stuck in a purgatory of a critical state and crisis; many who work in the industry are at their wits end as they struggle to receive the necessary emergency funding announced for the UK cultural sector.

Near the end of September, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new Winter Economy Plan: as the furlough schemes come to an end, they are set to be replaced by the Jobs Support Scheme. 

However, this was not well received by the music and nightlife industries, who criticized the scheme as not providing nearly enough funding for those working in the industry and venues across the country, with the UK government continuing to show little interest in assisting the sector in a genuinely sustainable fashion – as we saw last week, when Health MP Helen Whately spoke to Sky News blatantly sharing the overall disinterest in the sector financially:

The chancellor has adjusted and moved to the next phase. We know that COVID is going to be with us for months ahead, but it doesn’t make sense to continue supporting jobs where there simply isn’t work at the moment.

In a new development, parts of the UK’s planned Culture Recovery Fund have now been delayed, leaving workers, musicians and venues at risk – even more so than before.

The Music Venue Trust, who have been working tirelessly throughout the year in order to ensure the survival of grassroots venues, more so than ever during the financial crisis caused by COVID-19, shared an open letter as the furlough schemes were about to come to an end – on Twitter, to those in power. 

Speaking directly to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and MP / Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden: you can read the open letter / Twitter thread from the MVT below.

The Music Venue Trust have teamed up with Amazon UK to host a fundraiser for MVT’s #SaveOurVenues campaign; be sure to catch the fundraiser this Friday, October 9th:

MVT have also urged any venues who are struggling to reach out to them in this time of crisis.

Feature Image: Nikko Macaspac via Unsplash

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