Music Venue Trust (MVT), the charity that represents hundreds of UK grassroots music venues, is urging the Scottish Government to intervene to protect venues from the impact of business rate revaluations.

The UK government has introduced targeted relief which explicitly includes live music venues in England, and a similar step has been taken by the devolved government in Wales.

The Northern Ireland Executive has also launched a review of the business rates framework to ensure it does not damage hospitality and live music.

Stina Tweedale, Scotland co-ordinator for the Music Venue Trust, said: “Three governments have now looked at the same evidence and reached the same conclusion: the valuations are wrong for grassroots music venues and action is required.”

She added: “These new rateable values are not just uncomfortable, they are demonstrably wrong. They are based on assumptions that do not reflect how venues operate, what they earn, or what they can realistically sustain.”

Music Venue Trust is calling on the Scottish Government to work with the sector to put a temporary solution in place while longer-term reform of business rates is developed.

It has also urged both the Scottish and Welsh governments to set out clear long-term plans to permanently resolve the issue as part of their election manifestos later this year.

Ms Tweeddale said: “No one is asking for preferential treatment. We are asking for consistency, proportionality and basic fairness. 

“Scotland cannot plausibly argue that the same data and the same modelling errors somehow produce a different reality here.”

She added: “Grassroots music venues operate on extremely fine margins. Sudden, unjustified hikes in business rates are enough to tip otherwise viable venues into closure. Once they are gone, they do not come back.”