Christopher BarrettThe Events Industry Forum (EIF) is calling on events operators to write to economic secretary to the Treasury John Glen MP outlining the impact a lack a Government-backed insurance scheme is having on their events.
Jim Winship, secretary of the EIF said, “We have learnt this week that John Glen MP, economic secretary to the Treasury, is the block to the Treasury underwriting insurance. We are now recommending that event organisers cancelling events due to lack of insurance should write directly to him informing him of the cancellation and what it means in terms of the economic losses, particularly in respect of impact on jobs, losses to the supply chains and to businesses in the local communities around the event.
Winship requested that operators email Glen via John.glen.MP@parliament.UK and copy him in, jim@eventsindustryforum.co.uk, so that the organisation can collate data to submit to Government through other channels.
The Association of Independent Festivals has conducted a membership survey that found 92.5% of respondents cannot stage events without insurance.
John Glen has previously suggested that the publication of a roadmap for the reopening of the events sector could be the ‘right point’ to consider potential support, including insurance-based options.
Winship said, “The refusal of the commercial insurance industry to offer cover against events being cancelled due to the pandemic is a major obstacle to getting both indoor and outdoor events restarted, particularly after the experiences from last summer where a number of local authorities pulled the plug on events at the last minute, causing significant losses to the organisers.
“We have been alerting the Government to this for some months but it seems the Treasury is refusing to accept the arguments and we keep being asked for more evidence, so we are now asking event organisers cancelling for this reason to write directly to the Treasury in order to get this message through.
“There are schemes on the table which would cost the Treasury a lot less than they stand to lose in revenue from events being cancelled and jobs being lost.”