Press release - 21 January 2005

NCA welcomes new fee levels with caution

The NCA today welcomed new fee levels set under the Licensing Act 2003, though warned that they may not go far enough in protecting live music events in England and Wales.

The Government is introducing a new mandatory fee for any events where more than 5,000 people are present at any one time. Events affected by these fees will include some festivals. Following the NCA's response to a Government consultation on these fees, in which it stressed that many live arts events would not be able to sustain the burden of additional fees, the Government reduced the fee level from £5,000 to £1,000.

In response to the NCA's assertion that many local authorities wish to support and develop festivals in their region, the Government suggested that the fees could be paid from another area of the local authority's budget. They also committed to a review of the impact of the fees within a year of the full implementation of the Act in November this year.

NCA Director Victoria Todd said: "The Government have taken steps to ensure that their policy does not undermine a sector which is pressing all the right political buttons: economic development, rural and inner-city regeneration, community cohesion and so forth. The NCA will be monitoring the impact of the Act next year and will continue to ensure any negative repercussions are fed back to the DCMS."

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