For our monthly columnist and Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd, 2025 “has been a year of stark contradictions” at the end of which “we can see the shape of the solutions for the grassroots sector, but we’ve struggled to make them a practical reality”. Here, he reflects on the biggest events of the last 12 months, good and bad...
FIVE NEGATIVES FROM 2025
1. Policy by accident
The government’s approach to the grassroots music sector this year was well intentioned but poorly executed, creating a steady drain on venue resources through cumulative pressures. The rise in employers’ National Insurance contributions, the absence of targeted VAT relief and the escalating cost of compliance were never designed to target us, but their collective impact has been profound. The fundamental issue is a failure to actively design policy that helps rather than hinders. No one in Whitehall set out to cause harm, but by forgetting to make it easier, they have instead made it harder. We are left managing a crisis that remains largely unseen and unrecognised within the very policy frameworks that should be offering solutions, forcing us to spend energy on survival that should be spent on growth.
2. The implementation gap
We began the year with promising signals: the Culture Media & Sport Select Committee report’s recommendations were engaged, the fan-led review was announced and there was a palpable sense of understanding in meetings. Yet, this initial momentum dissolved into a familiar pattern of delay and inaction. The systemic inertia within the political machine means that promises made are not actions delivered. Venues that were on the brink in March found themselves in an even more precarious position by October, still waiting for the tangible support that was hinted at. This isn’t active opposition; it is a failure of process where action is perpetually scheduled for a tomorrow that arrives too late for those who need it most, leaving them to face closure without a lifeline.
3. The unsustainable squeeze
While public attention focused on easing energy costs, a silent crisis continued elsewhere. Rents, business insurance and staffing costs have all climbed relentlessly, creating a cost base that is increasingly impossible to sustain. At the same time, the disposable income of our audience remains under severe pressure, limiting what venues can reasonably charge at the door. This creates an impossible pincer movement. The top end of the industry celebrates record revenues, but the grassroots foundation is being forced to subsidise the entire ecosystem’s future. The economic model is broken, and the incremental fixes proposed so far are not matching the scale of a problem that threatens to collapse the pipeline of talent.
4. The slow bleed of venues
The story of 2025 was not defined by a few high-profile closures, but by the slow, quiet fade of countless beloved venues. These spaces do not fail because they are unloved or lack cultural relevance; they are killed by a decade of cumulative crises that have exhausted their operators, both financially and emotionally. The constant firefighting, from the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, has burned through every reserve of cash and energy. These operators are not giving up; they are simply being emptied out. The loss of each one is not just the loss of a stage, but the loss of a community hub, a talent incubator and a piece of our cultural fabric that cannot be easily replaced.
5. A sector in denial
A baffling and dangerous disconnect persists within our own industry. The mainstream conversation remains dominated by the economics of arena residencies, the implications of AI-generated music and stadium-scale profits. Meanwhile, the very stages that discover, nurture and build the artists for those spaces are still treated as a charitable cause or an afterthought. This cultural amnesia is our greatest strategic threat. It ignores the fundamental reality that the entire music ecosystem relies on a healthy grassroots pipeline. If we continue to take the foundation for granted and allow this pipeline to drain, the entire industry will feel the consequences within a few short years, facing a starved and homogenised future.
FIVE POSITIVES FROM 2025
1. Artists shift the debate
Coldplay’s public and unequivocal adoption of the concept that the highest levels of the industry can and should support its grassroots was a pivotal moment. It changed the entire conversation, transforming the idea from a niche sector campaign into a common-sense proposition for the entire business. When artists of their stature reframe the question from “should we?” to “why haven’t we already?”, it forces a new level of accountability across the industry. The principle that major commercial success has a responsibility to reinvest in its own foundations is no longer a radical argument but an increasingly undeniable consensus. This artist-led leadership provides a powerful, credible voice that policymakers and major players simply cannot ignore, creating a new momentum for change.
2. Fans get a formal voice
After years of advocacy arguing that audiences are participants, not just consumers, the fan-led review of live music is finally underway after its launch in June. This represents a critical philosophical and practical shift. It is a formal recognition that live music is a shared cultural ecosystem, not merely a transactional service. By giving fans a structured, official voice in shaping the future of the venues they care about, we are moving towards a model built on shared value and collective belonging. This process helps to safeguard the social and cultural value of venues against purely commercial pressures, ensuring that the people who give these spaces their meaning have a say in their survival and evolution.
3. Official recognition at last
A significant bureaucratic battle was won this year with the publication of the Creative Industries Sector Plan, which finally contained the explicit recognition we’ve fought for a decade to secure: that grassroots music venues are essential infrastructure for British culture. While this statement does not in itself pay a single bill or lower a rent, it is an immensely powerful tool. It fundamentally changes the framing of every subsequent conversation with policymakers, funders and developers. We are no longer pleading from the periphery for special treatment; we are arguing from the centre, reminding them of their duty to protect and nurture a recognised pillar of the nation’s cultural and economic landscape.
4. The ownership model proves itself
The most tangible success story of 2025 was the continued expansion of charitable community benefit society Music Venue Properties and the growing number of community-purchased venues in the UK. This is not a theoretical solution but a direct, market-based intervention in the problem of commercial property volatility. Every building that is brought into this model is permanently protected from the threats of redevelopment and predatory rent hikes. It is living proof that we do not have to wait for external salvation; we can take control and build a more resilient, self-determined future ourselves. This model provides the long-term security that allows venues to focus on culture and community, not just survival.
5. The pieces are now on the table
For the first time, all the necessary components for a sustainable solution are visibly on the table: we have political recognition, demonstrable public support, decisive artist leadership and a proven, scalable ownership model. The profound frustration is that we have not yet fully connected these pieces into a coherent, functioning system. However, the significant shift in 2025 is that the path forward is no longer theoretical or obscured. We know what needs to be done. The blueprint is clear. The task for 2026, therefore, is one of focused assembly and relentless execution, driven by the urgency that the continued closure of venues demands. The question is no longer, “What can we do?” but, “How fast can we do it?”.
