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Ex-WWE marketing boss named UK culture secretary

Michelle Donelan has been named as the UK’s eighth culture secretary in five years as part of a cabinet reshuffle by new prime minister Liz Truss.

Donelan, who succeeds Nadine Dorries in the post, worked in the media and entertainment business prior to becoming an MP in 2015, serving stints with Pacific Magazines, The History Channel and WWE (World Wresting Entertainment), where was employed as an international marketing communications manager.

She was appointed education minister in 2021 and was briefly education secretary this past July, stepping down after 48 hours amid mass resignations by more than 50 government members in protest at then PM Boris Johnson’s leadership.

Live music trade bodies have welcomed Donelan to her new role while stressing the urgent challenges facing the sector.

“Congratulations to Michelle Donelan MP on her appointment as secretary of state at DCMS,” says outgoing Association of Independent Festivals CEO Paul Reed. “It remains a uniquely challenging time for festivals as we look to the 2023 season. Although now fully operational, we are still in a recovery phase, facing an ongoing perfect storm of rising costs, supply chain issues, record low consumer confidence and audiences making extremely difficult choices due to the cost of the living crisis.

“We look forward to working closely with the minister and ensuring appropriate interventions and support for our culture defining festival sector, which generates £1.76bn GVA for the UK economy annually and supports 85,000 jobs.”

“We need urgent government action on the energy crisis which threatens to permanently close hundreds of grassroots music venues”

The UK’s Music Venue Trust (MVT), meanwhile, has used the opportunity to reiterate the need for intervention to combat the surge in energy bills that threatens the future of around 30% of the entire network of venues.

“We need urgent government action on the energy crisis which threatens to permanently close hundreds of grassroots music venues,” says venue support manager Clare Cullen in a social media post. “In the short term this will require financial interventions to tackle extraordinary price rises. In the longer term, we need [Donelan’s] department to investigate the energy market for music venues (and the rest of the hospitality sector) and to work with us to find a way to to make energy supply reliable, sustainable, and affordable.”

With MVT chief Mark Davyd previously revealing that Dorries was the first culture secretary to decline a meeting with the organisation since it was founded in 2014, the organisation is keen to establish a relationship with her successor.

“The UK’s grassroots music venues face multiple challenges to their resilience, sustainability and economic viability,” says Cullen in an open letter to Donelan. “These challenges are solvable. Music Venue Trust would like to invite you to attend a Parliamentary event on 14 September in which we will be describing just one of these solutions – our plan to change the ownership model so that the music community itself has a say in the future if grassroots music venue. We need to #ownourvenues

“We want a working relationship with you and your department that delivers positive change for UK artists and venues. To that end we have today formally requested a meeting with you at your earliest opportunity. Music Venue Trust has met with eight of the nine previous secretaries of state for DCMS that have held this post since our creation in 2014. We look forward to meeting with you so we can begin the work of creating a truly world beating grassroots live music sector.”

 


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Nadine Dorries steps down as UK culture secretary

UK culture secretary Nadine Dorries has stepped down ahead of a cabinet reshuffle by new prime minister Liz Truss.

Dorries, a staunch ally of outgoing PM Boris Johnson, succeeded Oliver Dowden as culture secretary in September last year, becoming the seventh politician in less than five years to hold the post.

The Conservative MP, who is returning to the backbenches and is tipped to receive a peerage, says in her resignation letter that she was asked to stay on in the role by Truss, but felt she would be “better placed to support her from outside of the cabinet”.

Dorries’ controversial 12-month reign as head of the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) has seen her attack the BBC’s licence fee model as “completely outdated“, led moves to privatise Channel 4 and draw up legislation for the Online Safety Bill.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) CEO Mark Davyd also revealed that Dorries was the first culture secretary to decline a meeting with the organisation since it was founded in 2014.

Her replacement, who is yet to be announced, will become the 11th culture secretary since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.

Truss, meanwhile, begins her term as the fourth Conservative prime minister in six years today after seeing off Rishi Sunak in a leadership contest in the wake of Johnson’s resignation.

“Without urgent action to help music venues, studios and other music businesses, there is a real risk that many will go to the wall”

She has vowed to set out a plan within a week to deal with the UK’s energy crisis, amid a warning from the MVT that the surge in energy bills means that around 30% of the entire network of venues face the threat of permanent closure.

Based on a survey of its 941 venue members, the organisation revealed that venues face an average 316% rise in fuel bills, taking the average cost to £5,179 per month per venue, up from the current average of £1,245.

“Alongside the simply unaffordable increases to costs, the government must urgently address the fact that the market for energy supply has collapsed,” said Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd. “We have multiple examples where venues do not have any option other than to accept whatever price increases and tariffs are proposed by the sole supplier prepared to offer them power at all. The situation has rapidly deteriorated into a monopoly.”

UK Music chief Jamie Njoku-Goodwin is also urging Truss to make tackling the cost of living crisis facing the music industry a key priority, and called on the new PM to repeat the action the government took to help the music and hospitality sector during the pandemic, when the VAT rate was cut from 20% to 5%.

“During the campaign, Liz Truss rightly talked about the need to tackle the crippling cost of living – and she must now deliver on that commitment immediately,” he says. “Without urgent action to help music venues, studios and other music businesses, there is a real risk that many will go to the wall.”

Michael Kill, CEO of the Night-Time Industries Association (NTIA), congratulated Truss on her appointment, adding: “It is now vital that the new prime minister takes this opportunity to be decisive in tackling the cost inflation crisis, over the coming days, by reducing VAT across the board, extending business rates relief and implementing an energy cap for small medium enterprise businesses.”

“Over the coming weeks without an effective intervention from the government, we will see thousands of businesses go to the wall and millions of jobs lost.”

 


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