Music Venue Trust warmly welcomes this morning’s announcement from the UK Government, and its recognition that Grassroots Music Venues are essential to our local communities. The 20% additional reduction on Business Rates in England for live music venues from April 2027 is an encouraging first step. It is just one of a range of opportunities available to Andy Burnham’s new team to not just protect and secure live music, but begin to restore its central role at the heart of our towns and cities.

There remain some issues of implementation of previous reliefs, and we will work with colleagues in government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and HM Treasury to ensure that all grassroots music venues in England are recognised and eligible.

We call on Senedd (Welsh Parliament), Holyrood (The Scottish Parliament), and the Assembly (Northern Ireland Executive) to swiftly confirm they will match this much needed support through Barnett formula consequentials. Venues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland must be confident of a level playing field of economic conditions for touring across the UK.

Live music is an ecosystem, and we strongly urge the government to reconsider the proposed limit to the eligibility criteria so that all live music spaces of all sizes qualify, supporting jobs, local economies and communities to access live music.

Music Venue Trust Opens Applications for Liveline Fund

Coldplay and LIVE Trust funded initiative will help restore grassroots touring, strengthen local music scenes and create more opportunities for artists across the UK

Following the success of several pilot projects, industry applications are now open for the latest round of funding from Liveline, the initiative that helps Grassroots Music Venues, independent promoters and artists across the UK remove the barriers that prevent more shows, tours and local music programmes from happening.

Open to Grassroots Music Venues, independent promoters, in-house venue programmers and artist representatives – including managers, booking agents and artists themselves – funding applications can support individual shows, tour dates, regular venue programmes, promoter development initiatives and longer-term activity that strengthens local live music ecosystems.

Find out more and apply now here.

Music Venue Trust 2025 Annual Report

MVT‘s Annual Report 2025 was launched on 20 January 2026. You can see all the latest data, read about the challenges faced by the sector and MVT‘s proactive response to this here. For the first time the Annual Report includes separate data for GMVs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in addition to the UK wide data. See pages 28-33 of the report.

Monthly Newsletter

You Can Buy a Share in GMVs across England

Purchase shares now at: crowdfunder.co.uk/p/own-our-venues

After hitting their initial target and closing the campaign on 14th November Music Venue Properties received a number of emails requesting the opportunity to invest. Having reviewed the situation, the Crowdfunder has been reopened to allow others to invest.

Thank you for your support.

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