Trickle-Up Economics
We Gave Tax Relief to Batman. How About a Lighting Engineer from Hull?
We’re very good in this country at celebrating talent once it’s already gone global. Once it’s won a BAFTA or headlined Glastonbury or delivered five nights of Comedy at the O2 in a row, we know exactly what to do: we send in the cameras, we nod sagely, we say things like “the UK creative industries are world-class,” and we write speeches about the importance of culture to the economy.
And those things are true. Culture is important. It does generate money. It does support jobs. The creative industries generate more than £120 billion for the UK economy. Music alone accounts for £6.7 billion of that. And the performing arts — music, theatre, comedy — clock in at an equally astonishing £11.5 billion. Real figures. Real jobs. Real people.
But here’s the catch: we’re not very good at supporting where that talent comes from.
We’ve got world-leading tax reliefs for orchestras, theatres, and especially film — where everything from Barbie to Batman Begins benefits from government-backed incentives to make work, train people, and stimulate regional economies. And good! That’s what a smart, grown-up economy does. It invests in the infrastructure that makes creativity possible.
So now let’s ask the obvious question: why are we not doing the same for grassroots performing arts?
Why is there no tax relief for the people running 200-cap venues, black box theatres, comedy clubs, and hybrid community art centres — the ones training the very technicians, producers, and creatives that the rest of the sector is built on?
This isn’t a rhetorical question. There’s an actual answer: nobody’s written the policy yet.
So working with colleagues in theatre, comedy clubs, arts centres and other performing arts spaces, we did.
Introducing PACSTR (Yes, it needs a better name. But stay with me)
PACSTR — the Performing Arts Creative Skills Tax Relief — is a simple proposal: provide tax relief to grassroots performing arts venues (music, theatre, comedy) to help them retain and develop the skilled workers that make live performance possible.
We’re talking about:
Sound engineers
Lighting designers
Stage techs
Producers
Programmers
Marketing professionals
All of whom are in increasingly short supply. And all of whom start — and too often stay — on incredibly thin margins.
PACSTR would do two big things:
Offer a tax relief covering 80% of wage costs (or 100% of UK-based costs) for these skilled roles in venues under 700 capacity.
Provide a refundable credit for loss-making venues, ensuring the smallest operators aren’t excluded.
It’s modeled on what’s already working in other sectors — just applied to the places we somehow keep forgetting.
A modest ask for a huge impact
The cost? An estimated £15–28 million a year.
That’s… not a lot. Especially when you consider that Theatre Tax Relief currently costs about £40 million, and Film Tax Relief well over £500 million annually. To put that maximum figure of £28 million per annum in perspective, the 2022 blockbuster Jurassic World: Dominion received £89.1 million in UK Film Tax Relief, marking it as the most heavily subsidised film since the inception of the scheme in 2007. Its predecessor, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, received £70.7 million, bringing the combined total for just those two films to £159.8 million. Batman really does get more help from HMRC than your local lighting engineer.
What would we get in return?
Up to £12,000 in direct savings per employee for small venues.
3,000–5,000 skilled roles supported annually.
A direct economic impact far exceeding the cost, with grassroots tickets generating £17–£47 in local spending for every £10 spent.
And here’s the kicker: 80% of the venues likely to benefit are outside London. So yes, this is a leveling-up policy too — a rare one that doesn’t require a round-table and a 92-page white paper to explain it.
And if you want examples, we’ve got them
We’ve got a lighting engineer who started out in a backroom in Hull and now makes their living at the Royal Opera House. A tax break could have opened that path sooner — and for others.
We’ve got a sound engineer in Cheltenham stuck on freelance contracts because the venue can’t afford to hire them properly. A PACSTR credit could fix that.
A comedy producer who moved here from Europe, volunteered at a small festival, worked their way up, and now runs the programme. With a bit of support, that festival could hire two more staff, offer training placements, and increase access to the industry.
You know the stories. Maybe you’re even living one of them.
This is what the grassroots sector really needs
Not another pilot project. Not another consultation. Not a one-off grant, a lottery scheme, or a local initiative with a name like “Creative Spark Northern Area Catalyst Hub.” What’s needed is a long-term financial mechanism that says: we value what you do, and we’re going to help you keep doing it.
A venue under 700 cap isn’t a niche business. It’s a training ground, a research lab, a local employer, a youth outreach programme, a mental health space, a skills accelerator, a tourist attraction, and a cultural beacon — all in one building. What’s more, it costs almost nothing to keep them alive — if we design the system to do so.
So what are we waiting for?
PACSTR should be a three-year pilot. Let’s run the numbers. Let’s measure the outcomes. Let’s use the kind of evidence-based policy-making we’re always being told exists in theory.
This is not a silver bullet. It won’t fix rent hikes or VAT or business rates or the aggressive march of private landlords into cultural property (although, side note: we do have something for that too — more on that another time). But it is a practical, well-modeled, shovel-ready fix for a known weakness in the creative economy: we don’t invest enough in the people who make it all work.
Let’s change that. Let’s recognise that cultural infrastructure starts at the bottom — because if we lose the foundations, the whole building collapses.
We already subsidise opera singers, set designers, and script editors. It’s time we gave the same support to someone who knows how to tune a monitor wedge in a vital grassroots cultural space.
If you're reading this and you’re in government: We have written the policy for you, all you have to do is deliver it.
If you're in the industry: This is a practical, inexpensive, achievable tax relief that would make a real difference, all you have to do is support it.
If you’ve ever had your career made possible by a grassroots space: It’s not too late to help build a system that keeps that door open, write to your MP and ask them to support PACTSR.
Because Batman doesn’t need another tax break. But your local sound engineer definitely does.