UK Government announces review to tackle grassroots music venue crisis

nme.com:

10 per cent of the UK’s smaller venues close by the end of 2023.The plans for the new review were shared by DCMS Select Committee Chair Caroline Dinenage MP, and a full report of its findings will be published next year.

Dinenage has also confirmed that a call for evidence will be made in the near future with written submissions invited.It will further see witnesses called to parliament, to enable the committee to understand the current crisis and make recommendations to all stakeholders on how to address it.“One of the pillars during my campaign to become the Chair of the DCMS Select Committee was to say that we need to do a full review of grassroots music venues in the UK, the challenges that they are facing, but also what the opportunities are and what more we can do to support them.

And that’s what our committee has agreed to do,” said Dineage, speaking at Music Venue Trust’s (MVT) annual ‘Venues Day’ conference in London this week.“One of the pillars during my campaign to become the Chair of the DCMS Select Committee was to say that we need to do a full review of grassroots music venues in the UK, the challenges that they are facing, but also what the opportunities are and what more we can do to support them.

And that’s what our committee has agreed to do,” she added.“We will be announcing a call for evidence quite soon, and then probably just after Christmas, we’ll start taking live evidence from people as well.