Following years of critical inaction from successive governments, we call on Andy Burnham to fix Britain's broken live music industry and prevent the permanent closure of the countless grassroots music venues whose futures are at serious risk.
Andy Burnham has built much of his political identity heavily around Manchester's proud musical heritage and has supported key initiatives to reduce financial stresses on local music venues and support the night time economy as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Now, with him almost certainly the next Prime Minister, we're calling on him to put his money where his mouth is and back British live music.
“Andy Burnham has built much of his political identity heavily around Manchester's proud musical heritage and has supported key initiatives to reduce financial stresses on local music venues and support the night time economy as Mayor of Greater Manchester. It's time to put his money where his mouth is, and do the same as Prime Minister...”
Our petition call on him to take immediate action to save our grassroots music venues by:
- Introducing a mandatory ticket levy on the corporate sponsors of large arena and stadium concerts to be invested back into grassroots music venues
- Cutting damaging business rates on grassroots music venues in order to reduce unsustainable running costs
- Implementing the recommendations of the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee's Grassroots Music Venues 2024 report
The solutions to this crisis are simple. Political will is what has been missing. For the sake of Britain's struggling grassroots music venues, Andy Burnham must take urgent action when he assumes the office of Prime Minister in July.