Promised You a Miracle
When is a deadline not a deadline? When is 50% not half? What's a milestone between friends? And will a newly energised government get bored of this immediately or will it take another 3 months?
On Thursday Lord Brennan of Canton (see previous columns, you can call him Kevin) rose in the House of Lords to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the contribution of live music to the UK’s culture and economy. That’s a pretty far ranging question, and the subsequent debate saw pretty much everything raised, from the importance of music education, through great music charities doing good work; and on to the not insignificant topics of Agent of Change, Business Rates, Apprenticeships, pre-profit taxation, uncompetitive VAT and at least two minutes where Baroness Hyde of Bemerton attempted to get one over on Chris Bryant MP by making the most number of song puns in a speech.
I had already written a long column for this week’s newsletter pulling apart the issue of the voluntary versus statutory model of the Grassroots Levy prior to this debate. Reading through the comments that were made about that specific issue by members of the House of Lords on all sides, I thought better of it and instead decided you deserved a week off from me stating the bleedin’ obvious again. So instead of the usual brunch-time rant from me this week, I would like to invite you, gentle readers, to consider what you think about the following statements, the response to them, the declared government position, repeated multiple times, and, to conclude this leisurely Sunday morning delight of a stroll through what everybody thinks and where we actually are, just the data. No commentary, no explanations, no attempts to say that this might mean that or that indicates this and no drawing of conclusions, just the actual data that tells you what the uptake on the voluntary levy actually is, right here, right now. Because the data is always your friend.
At the end there will be an invitation to leave a comment whereby you, instead of me, can tell everyone what you think happens next, or maybe offer an opinion on what you think should happen next. The purpose of that interactivity is it will be a significant improvement on me saying what I think, and therefore being told off for saying it, or being asked not to say it, or being privately admonished for my unhelpful tendency to say out loud in public what everyone is thinking in private. I am deliberately not offering an opinion, because I think the data speaks for itself, as does the debate, as do the statements on the government’s position. I would simply remind everyone that contrary to what they might want to think, or perhaps hope, the government is not mainly staffed by people who cannot read data, or people who can be persuaded that facts are not facts if they are inconvenient, or, believe it or not, people who will say something bluntly, on the record, in written statements, with a timeline, and then do something different entirely.
What was said in the Debate:
“The Government have committed previously that if it is not getting to a level of 50% by this summer, they will look at it. I strongly urge them to look very closely at the statistics to see what is happening with the voluntary levy. Is it working on a voluntary basis? Are the big players putting their hands in their pockets and making their contributions? If not, the Government should live up to their word and make it a statutory levy.” - Lord Brennan of Canton
“Various new arenas are proposed to open in the UK over the next few years, but there is no record of such venues making a financial investment in the pipeline, and I think we are entitled to ask why that is. The Premier League shares 16% of its central revenues with the wider game. I see no reason why the top end of the live music industry cannot do the same, and reinvest in the talent and venues that are supporting it and supplying the next generation of performers.” - Lord Watson of Invergowrie
“It is right that the industry supports the grass roots, just as we see in football.” - Baroness Coffey
“The noble Lord, Lord Brennan, mentioned that, when the Government introduced the voluntary levy, they would look at whether it reached 50% of venues by this summer. In fact, the deadline was this Tuesday. Can the Minister say whether the Government will begin that assessment, and if they will make it public?” - Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay
What the Government said in response to the debate:
“My noble friend Lord Brennan of Canton and other noble Lords asked what will happen if the industry fails to adopt the voluntary levy at scale. While we welcome the significant progress made by the LIVE Trust, we have been absolutely clear that we are prepared to explore legislative options if necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of our world-leading live music.” - Baroness Twycross
The Government’s Stated Position on the voluntary levy versus statutory levy issue:
“The worst thing of all is if we get to the end of year and we're still on the kind of numbers you talked about earlier [in the hearing], because I think people would then say the levy is dry.” - Former Minister for Culture Chris Bryant MP, November 2024
“Our position remains the same: If we don’t see the progress that we expect, then we do reserve the right to intervene and put that on a statutory footing. It’s not our preferred model; we’d rather the industry got its act together and came together to ensure that grassroots venues were protected and supported. We think it’s in the interests of the industry as a whole. If you don’t have the venues like the kind we have in Wigan that helped acts like The Verve to come through, then it has a knock-on effect on the whole industry. But just as we said with ticket touts, if the industry won’t take action then we won’t hesitate to intervene on behalf of fans.” - Secretary of State for Culture, Lisa Nandy MP, October 2025
““My ambition is to see the voluntary levy in place for as many concerts as possible and, as a milestone in that progress, for at least 50% of tickets on sale for stadium and arena shows in 2026 [to have adopted the levy] by 31 December 2025. Following this, I would like to see this target brought as close to 100% as soon as possible.” - Minister for Culture, Ian Murray, November 2026
The Data on adoption rates of the Voluntary Grassroots Levy (as at 30/06/2026):
Total tickets 2026 on sale so far: 23,852,516 (23.8million)
Percentage containing grassroots levy: 26.30%
Total number of tickets with grassroots levy contribution 2026: 6,274,303 (6.2million)
Total number of tickets without levy: 17,578,213 (17.5million - 73.70%)
Total tickets 2027 on sale so far: 1,130,962 (1.1million)
Percentage containing grassroots levy: 20.67%
Total number of tickets with grassroots levy contribution 2026: 233,800 (233K)
Total number of tickets without levy: 897,162 (79.33%)
Total tickets announced/on sale Q1 2026: 5,168,180 (5.1million)
Percentage containing grassroots levy: 30.26%
Total number of tickets with grassroots levy contribution 1 January to 31 March: 1,563,658 (1.5million)
Total number of tickets in this period without levy: 3,604,522 (69.74%)
Total tickets announced/on sale Q2 2026: 3,683,794 (3.6million)
Percentage containing grassroots levy: 15.44%
Total number of tickets with grassroots levy contribution 1 April to 30 June: 568,960 (569K)
Total number of tickets without levy: 3,114,834 (84.56%)
That’s the data; leave a comment. I would be interested to hear if you think the voluntary levy is working based on the facts contained in the data. I’d be interested to hear what you think happens next, and what impact you think the arrival of Andy Burnham at Number 10 might have on what decision the government might make. Andy is on record as a strong advocate for the levy who has repeatedly called for it to be implemented without delay. What do you think he will make of this data?
Let’s hear from you for a change…
I genuinely believe Andy Burnham can make this happen. He understands that culture isn’t a nice extra, it’s infrastructure. And from where I’m standing in Wigan, the appetite, talent and grassroots energy are already here. Never felt this hope in the government before, I really do trust he will get this turned around!
Like a lot of things in the music industry (see sustainable manufacturing options as one such current topic suffering from major label greenwashing), those with the power and the resources rarely do the right thing for long, if at all. If we want this to work fairly with less burden on those who really mean it (man), then statutory is the way to go.
I feel that if Andy Burnham doesn’t sort this out, then nobody will.