I Can’t Get No Relief

The Government has clearly got its priorities in order in the build-up to the General Election, introducing a new tax relief for orchestras from April 2016 following a public consultation.

The move was announced by George Osborne who may or may not have been violently hung-over at the time, according to this recent footage of Prime Minister’s Questions, presumably after some serious cider sniffing.

Interestingly, the move to grant some relief to orchestras mirrors similar measures introduced last year to theatre, film, animation and video games industry in addition to children’s television presenters from April this year according to The Telegraph.

Osborne said: “I want to make sure our great orchestras continue to thrive. Our new tax relief will encourage orchestras to perform across the whole of the UK – helping secure the future of live performances in the UK”.

Director of the Association of British Orchestras Mark Pemberton clearly welcomed the move, adding: “We welcome the launch of the consultation. Tax relief will make a big difference to our members’ resilience in these challenging times, helping them to continue to offer the very best in British music-making to audiences both here in the UK and abroad”.

All of which begs the question: Where is the popular music industry in all of this?