Industry groups quick to lobby new PM

Andy Burnham has only just got his feet under the desk of No10 – but comedy trade bodies have been quick to lobby the new Prime Minister to support the industry

Today’s announcement that pubs, social clubs and live music venues would be eligible for 20 per cent relief on business rates has led to campaigners to call for similar measures in comedy – as well as wider recognition for the sector.

It is not clear whether comedy clubs will be eligible for the newly announced concession, which will save the typical pub an estimated £1,100 in the next financial year.

While comedy clubs were not mentioned in the announcement, Treasury sources told Chortle that definitions ‘will broadly mirror the definitions used for the existing 15 per cent’ relief announced in February.

Officially, those definitions also do not mention comedy clubs – but following a Whitehall meeting, the Live Comedy Association (LCA) secured an assertion that such venues WOULD come under the umbrella for the earlier relief. 

Otherwise, in cases of doubt it is up to local authorities to determine whether a venue is eligible or not. 

That comedy was not included in today's announcement prompted the 1,500-member LCA to complain to Burnham that the £1billion-a-year industry is ‘frequently ignored in policy decisions’. 

Their open letter asserted: ‘In our view there is little difference between a live music venue and a dedicated live comedy club.’

Meanwhile, another industry group Craft (the Comedy Representation and Artform Trust) also sent an open letter to the Prime Minister with the similar demand that the government ‘ensure frameworks are redesigned to explicitly include, name, and recognise comedy.’

And they asserted that live comedy is ‘more than entertainment; it's evidence-based healthcare which sits at the heart of our communities.’

Here are both letters in full:

From The Live Comedy Association 

Dear Prime Minister

Congratulations on your appointment.  We are writing to seek your support of the Live Comedy Association (LCA) and the wider UK grassroots live comedy sector. 

 The LCA is the only membership organisation working on behalf of people working in live comedy.  We were established in 2020 and have been working since to represent our 1500 members.  Our main mission is to get the UK government to recognise grassroots live comedy as an essential part of the creative industries.  We are today asking for your support to help us meet our mission.

Why is this important?  Without recognition of grassroots live comedy we are frequently ignored in policy decisions.  Earlier today you announced that pubs, clubs and live music venues are set to receive a 20% cut to their business rates bills. In our view there is little difference between a live music venue and a dedicated live comedy club and yet our comedy club members are not eligible for the business rates reduction.  

Both music and comedy venues support new and emerging talent, help build communities and contribute economically to the UK.  We know from the survey report we published last year that the UK live comedy sector is worth over £1billion to the UK economy.  We simply ask that you support the concept that where grassroots live music is mentioned in policies, government extends this to grassroots live music and comedy. 

Our work is supported by a range of organisations and associates.  Our board of directors are supported by the Advisory Panel, a group of 20 people with considerable experience of live comedy.   We also work closely with Equity, Centre for Comedy Studies Research, Get Off Live Comedy and Comedy Support Act and recently met with colleagues from DCMS.  We also have close working relationships with Music Venue Trust, BBC Radio 4, Night Time Industries Association and others who support our mission.

We are increasingly recognised as the voice for grassroots live comedy sector, and organisations are working with us to consult with our members and the wider live comedy sector.  We have recently worked with PRS, Arts Council England and National Counter Terrorism Security Office. 

We are passionate about the work of our sector and the impact we make.  We would ask for an opportunity to discuss with you further how we might support your government agenda and facilitate conversations with our colleagues across the UK.

Yours sincerely

Jessica Toomey, David Elphick, Mark Boosey, Che Burnley, Paul Richardson, Liam Pape, Kate Lennon
Directors of the Live Comedy Association CIC

From Craft

Dear Andy,

Congratulations on your appointment as Prime Minister.

We write on behalf of the comedy industry to request an urgent meeting with you in the coming days.

CRAFT — Comedy Representation and Artform Trust — is the national body for UK comedy. It has cross-party political patrons, initiated and serves as Secretariat to the Comedy APPG, and is guided by the UK Comedy Advisory Board, whose professionals bring over 300 years of combined experience in the sector — including our beloved comedy patrons and parliamentarians' favourite talents, Tom Walker (Jonathan Pie) and Matt Forde.

It was wonderful to welcome you recently as the premier guest on Simon Says, Let's Talk, the men's creative health Podcast-on-Prescription I co-founded with your colleague Dr Simon Opher MP, in my capacity as the tech Founder and CEO of Craic. On the show, you expressed your support of comedy, saying "it is a social intervention which lifts, helps, and takes a bit of pressure off people"; and that "we have to think differently; Lu you're definitely doing that"

We ask you to think differently today — to become the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to correct a long-standing omission: ensure frameworks are redesigned to explicitly include, name, and recognise comedy.

We were delighted to see your announcement that pubs, clubs and live music venues are set to receive a 20% cut to their business rates bills. However, today, the rooms where British comedy is made cannot access the same relief as the pub next door. As with January's 15% relief, comedy was again systemically excluded.  This is despite being a vital sector of the UK economy — one that sustains thousands of grassroots SMEs, drives local spend, and connects communities across Britain and beyond. 

Comedy has wide cultural reach, directly supports local communities and small venues across the country, including in government hard-to-reach target areas for increasing access to the arts, rather than benefits being limited to major cities with existing creative infrastructure. 

Comedy is also uniquely accessible, written and performed in real time, so it can confront social inequalities and drive social change.

Like music and theatre, live comedy is more than entertainment; it's evidence-based healthcare which sits at the heart of our communities. It's time the Government and key institutions recognised its potential and backed it equally. 

British comedy is a paradox. It is one of Britain's major creative economies, generating billions each year across live, broadcast, recorded, digital and visual formats – yet almost nothing is reinvested back into the sector, and its wealth sits with a handful of major brands and names. The grassroots that makes tomorrow's headliners – the comedians, writers, producers, bookers and agents; the clubs, venues, festivals and production companies – has been quietly buckling since the pandemic. 

Talent is leaving and businesses are closing: Leicester Comedy Festival, Britain’s second-biggest, brings in £10 million for the local economy, yet it is on the brink of collapse and without support.

In time, CRAFT would welcome the chance to discuss a wide range of issues and solutions with you. Today, our ask is modest: please give comedy parity of esteem with other sectors in existing rates, tax and relief schemes – we have set out an outline of proposals below for your consideration. These marginal extensions come at minimal cost to Government, but the immediate impact for the comedy sector is enormous.

 For example: one change to Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) is worth an estimated £1million a year to the Edinburgh Fringe alone: extending eligibility to producers of temporary festival venues, whose annual infrastructure spend cannot currently be claimed.

It regularly surprises parliamentarians that comedy is not a recognised artform, nor specifically named within the frameworks of the Arts Councils, NHS social prescribing schemes, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Charity Commission, the British Council and other key institutions. 

Comedy has never been given a seat on the Creative Industries Council since its formation in 2011. 

Downstream, this has resulted in comedy remaining unlisted or omitted from the very reports and funding frameworks that shape the creative economy, including the Creative Industries Sector Plan and the Copyright and AI consultations. Sadly, these lists are not exhaustive. CRAFT initiated the Comedy APPG to close that gap, starting with securing comedy's fair share of the support that already exists.

At the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's recent oral evidence session reviewing Arts Council England, it was said that "if you fund comedy, you are funding it at the expense of something else".

My personal mission – and now CRAFT's – is to move the comedy sector from scarcity to abundance, with the belief that when comedy wins, nobody else loses; in fact, everyone can win. Can we recruit you to help us on this mission? Comedy needs a leader who thinks differently and sees the sector ecosystem beyond the jokes – the people and businesses –and for what it is: one of Britain's greatest cultural, healthcare, and economic assets.

Tom Walker, Matt Forde, your colleagues and our leadership team have offered personal statements, which follow below. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you urgently, to discuss implementation and share the evidence base assembled through years of research.

Finally, since Larry is surely the feline world's biggest comedy fan, could you pass on a G'day to him from the CRAFT team? Let him know we love his feed on X; it's almost as funny as Liam Gallagher's.

We wish you every success as you lead the country.

Yours sincerely,

Lu Jackson
Founder & Chair of Trustees, CRAFT

Published: 23 Jul 2026