Following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement today that the Job Support Scheme will be extended for restriction-hit areas, Theatres Trust director Jon Morgan responds:
Theatres Trust welcomes the Chancellor’s announcement today of more support for businesses affected by Covid-19 restrictions. Theatres who have managed to reopen under Tiers 2 and 3 are likely to suffer a downturn in attendance, however, as they have not been forced to close under either tier they cannot access the enhanced Job Support Scheme available to pubs and restaurants in Tier 3. The more generous core Job Support Scheme along with the monthly grants for businesses in high alert-level areas will therefore provide much–needed additional support to struggling theatres.
However, it remains the case that most theatres in all areas are unable to reopen viably under social distancing. We therefore urge the Chancellor to implement a sector specific support scheme for theatres and other events spaces which cannot reopen and are rapidly running out of money. This is vital to prevent further job losses on top of the 7,500 plus the industry has already suffered.