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UK Grassroots Music Venues Report Losses and Job Cuts
January21
Music Venue Trust (MVT) has published its Annual Report 2025, highlighting sustained financial pressure across the UK grassroots music venue (GMV) sector, with declining profitability and significant job losses despite an annual economic contribution of more than £500 million.
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According to the report, average profit margins across GMVs stood at just 2.5% in 2025, while 53% of venues recorded no profit at all.
MVT attributes much of this strain to rising operating costs and recent UK government changes to national insurance and business rates. As a result, the sector shed approximately 6,000 jobs during the year, representing a 19% contraction of the grassroots venue workforce.
The report notes that venues’ limited margins have left many businesses financially exposed, with the majority now vulnerable to any further cost increases or revenue shocks.
Over the past 12 months, 30 grassroots venues closed permanently. MVT estimates that 175 towns and cities across the UK—home to around 25 million people—no longer host regular touring shows by professional artists, reflecting a contraction in the national touring circuit.
Mark Davyd, MVT CEO and founder, said: “The future of British music depends on stabilising and rebuilding the grassroots touring network. The arrival of Grassroots Levy funding in 2026 will provide the opportunity to take a radical new approach and that is exactly what we intend to do. For ten years Music Venue Trust has explored the best ideas from around the world, worked with our sector to understand what would make the biggest difference to them, and brought forward innovative, groundbreaking ideas that we can now deliver practically. This is no longer just about rescue, it is about working with our partners and colleagues, including the crucial role to be played by the LIVE Trust, to deliver investment and reform that restores the infrastructure that music careers are built on.”
MVT identifies financial viability as the core issue, concluding that existing economic models for grassroots live music are no longer sustainable. The report warns that reduced touring activity limits employment opportunities and undermines the development pipeline for emerging artists, with longer-term implications for the wider UK live music and recorded music industries.
In response, MVT has outlined a package of measures aimed at stabilising venue finances and reducing operating costs, including an immediate £2 million investment in targeted programmes focused on infrastructure resilience, energy efficiency and operational improvements. Alongside these initiatives, the organisation is developing a new national touring programme intended to reduce promoter risk and guarantee artist fees, with the aim of rebuilding touring activity in areas that have fallen out of the professional live music network.
The charity also calls for government action, including tax reform to address pre-profit taxation and longer-term structural measures to support venue sustainability. MVT states that without meaningful reform and sustained investment, the sector’s ability to maintain employment levels and operate profitably will remain under threat.
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