It’s political party conference season in the UK, which means MPs and the wider political establishment have all left London to head to Brighton, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester for the annual round of political cut and thrust and associated hijinx. Fresh from their nice long summer holiday. It’s a wonder any work gets done at all.
This week the Lib Dems all decamped to the seaside, landing in Brighton where part-time musician, activist and parliamentary hopeful Charlie Clinton - who ran against new Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the central London Holborn And St Pancras constituency - called for the party to introduce “national policy calling for a Fair Deal For Musicians”.
This was passed by party members at the conference, with the party “calling on all politicians to work together with the music industry to save the future of music in the UK”.
Specific things that the Lib Dems want politicians to pull together on include Music Venue Trust’s proposal - supported by many though not all in the live music industry - to impose a levy on ticket sales for shows at large venues including stadiums and arenas, with the proceeds going to help support the grassroots live sector and venues.
Some artists have already voluntarily committed to support grassroots venues via their arena and stadium shows. Enter Shikari included a one pound levy on their arena shows, while Coldplay recently committed to donate 10% of their share of revenue generated from eight of their stadium shows next summer. With the proposed levy, all large-scale shows would provide financial support for grassroots live music.
The Lib Dems policy announcement specifically calls attention to recommendations made by Parliament’s culture select committee in April “that the government should step in to impose a levy on large venues if they have not done so voluntarily by September”.
The Lib Dems also want to see a restoration of funding for music education, both locally and nationally, which will be welcome news to a sector that has seen significant impacts due to funding cuts, from early years through to university level music education.
Possibly most significantly - given the Lib Dems strong presence in local government, with 3100 out of England’s 17,000 local councillors, and control of 69 local councils - is a call for stronger protection for the rights of musicians to practice at home without fear of council noise enforcement action, and stronger protection of music venues by embedding the ‘Agent Of Change’ planning guidance principles into law.
Referencing the case of a Lewisham-based classical musician, Fiona Fey, who faced enforcement action from her local council after a neighbour complained about noise, Clinton said “Fiona was told that if any music was heard outside her flat, the council would fine her £5000 and confiscate all her instruments because, and I quote, ‘all music is a nuisance no matter the volume or the time of day’”.
As a result, Fey - unable to afford the costs of legal action against the council - was forced to move out of her flat “just after Liz Truss tanked the economy and sent rent skyrocketing”, ending up “sofa surfing for months while she was trying to find a home”.
That incident, says Clinton, illustrates the plight of many working musicians who struggle to make ends meet. “It’s always been financially challenging to be a working musician”, he continued, noting that “43% of musicians in this country earn less than £14,000 a year”.
However, it’s not just musicians facing a squeeze, says Clinton, but also venues. Rattling off the Music Venue Trust’s widely published statistics highlighting the loss of venues - “16% of all grassroots music venues in this country shut down entirely or stopped offering live music” in 2023 - he highlighted additional challenges that venues face “because of the lax attitude of councils to the Agent Of Change principle”.
That’s a principle that was added to the National Planning Policy Framework relating to planning permission for buildings, which says that it is the responsibility of a developer building or adapting a property near a music venue to mitigate the impact of noise from the music venue, rather than the responsibility of the venue.
However, points out Clinton, last year saw Manchester’s Night And Day venue hit with legal proceedings after a property developer “failed to adequately soundproof new residential properties next door” to the venue.
In fact, the Agent Of Change principles are - as trade publication The Planner points out - “policy only” and “a flexible if not vague tool and its application in planning decisions is inconsistent, even chaotic”, which means that many people involved in the planning process, from both the design and planning sides of the sector, “are making it up as they go along”.
“The bottom line is that the future of the music industry is at risk and needs our help”, says Clinton, “Today everything may appear fine at the top of the music scene. Even Oasis are back, but the foundations are crumbling. I do not want to see the day the music dies”.