Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Paragraph: 64
To further combat the negative effects of closure, and to stimulate long-term recovery, the Government...
Recommendation
To further combat the negative effects of closure, and to stimulate long-term recovery, the Government should introduce other fiscal measures. We recommend the cut in VAT on ticket sales for theatre and live music be extended beyond January 2021, for the next three years. The Government should increase Theatre Tax Relief to 50% for the next three years and broaden the definition of ‘core expenditure’ in line with the industry’s proposals. It should introduce a Music Tax Relief, modelled on existing reliefs such as the Orchestra Tax Relief. The Government should also develop a system to save ‘Assets of Cultural Value’ along the lines of the regime for ‘Assets of Community Value’. This would allow a moratorium on the sale of a building while stakeholders seek an alternative bidder to maintain the asset as a cultural business. The Government should also build on recent ‘Agent of Change’ planning reform to protect cultural assets by tightening planning regulations around change of use from venues or music studios to residential and other developments.
Paragraph Reference:
64
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
As part of the Winter Economy Plan announced on 24 September, the government extended the temporary 15 percent VAT cut (from 20 percent to five percent) for the 10 Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors: Government Response tourism and hospitality sectors to the end of March 2021. This will give businesses in the sector the confidence to maintain staff as they adapt to a new trading environment. The Government keeps all tax reliefs under review. HM Treasury would need to assess any new tax relief for its effectiveness at meeting its objectives, cost to the Exchequer, wider economic impacts and ability to stand up to abuse. to protect it. Following the announcement on 5 July of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund for our sectors, DCMS continues to engage with HM Treasury to feed into their assessment of the potential impacts. We are working to ensure the needs of our sectors are factored into the developing economic response, and that they are supported throughout this time. We updated our National Planning Policy Framework in 2018 to introduce the ‘agent of change’ principle, to ensure that where the operation of an existing business could have a significant adverse effect on a proposed new residential or other development, the applicant (or ‘agent of change’) should be required to provide suitable mitigation before the development has been completed. We have also reformed the Use Classes Order to include venues for live music performance as a land use that will always require a local planning application before a change of use to residential or other development. Local applications will be determined by the Local Planning Authority in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Further to this, changes to the planning system announced by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government will save theatres, concert halls and live music performance venues for future generations.