The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) is calling on the Scottish Government to save Scottish nightlife to prevent condemning thousands of businesses to bankruptcy and risking 39,000 jobs in the night time economy by urgently providing a credible roadmap that safely and fully reopens Scotland’s music, nightlife, and culture sectors. You can get behind the #1of39K campaign to #SaveScottishNightlife by using these hashtags and sharing this story.
It says that only a clear commitment to a date for the complete end to all restrictions on capacity, activities, and opening hours can now ensure the survival of Scotland’s culturally vital late night economy and save the jobs of tens of thousands of young people at imminent threat.
The NTIA says that young people’s jobs have been among the hardest hit by this pandemic. Up to 55 per cent of 16-24 year olds work in these sectors, compared with less than 20 per cent of the rest of the workforce. Youth unemployment soared into double digits as a result, nearly doubling from pre-pandemic levels, as many employers have been subject to extensive periods of forced closure and unable to trade viably, even those allowed to partially open. It fears this situation will become even more critical at the end of June when businesses face the further financial precipice of having to contribute to the cost of furlough payments to staff, whilst in many cases still having no income, and consequently having to make hard decisions about retaining jobs.
Despite unrelenting good news about vaccine performance being dramatically better than expected, the Scottish Government’s ongoing ‘failure to engage in meaningful consultation with the sector and provide a workable roadmap out of the pandemic is now resulting in tens of thousands of lost jobs, lost livelihoods, and a lost future for the creative and cultural industries in Scotland.’
Lindsay McIntyre, NTIA Member & Director of KSG Acoustics, said, “I’m one of the 39,000 currently at risk of losing my job. As part of the supply chain to the events industry and an employer, I am witnessing first-hand the imminent collapse of similar businesses due to a lack of certainty and support, the loss of significant numbers of skilled technical jobs, and the drain from the music industry of the talent and experience that drives these events.
“The concert-going public need to understand that these events cannot simply be switched back on – the detailed planning for the events they love is months in the making. Without a meaningful timeline, a commitment to removal of social distancing and guaranteed financial support in the event of cancellation these events simply will not happen. If they are lost again this year, some may be lost forever along with the cultural, well-being and economic benefits they bring. Indicative data from the tests events in Liverpool, and rapid advances in vaccination progress should give the Scottish Government confidence to engage meaningfully with the sector and facilitate progress immediately before it’s too late.”
Tom Ketley, NTIA Member & Director of FLY Events, added, “I’m one of 39,000 currently at risk of losing my job as ScotGov still has not provided a roadmap to when our industry can return. We cannot operate socially distanced yet every single adult over the age of 18 will have been vaccinated by July. Early data from UK Gov pilots shows that large scale events without masks & social distancing are as safe as going to a restaurant or the shops where PCR testing is in place. This can be done so we need to be proactive and get back to work.”
The NTIA says that data from the Events Research Program (ERP), including the Brits at the London O2, World Snooker Championship in Sheffield and the FA Cup Final at Wembley, and in particular the Liverpool trial events which included two consecutive large scale indoor club events and an outdoor festival, demonstrated that these environments did not present any significant increase in transmission risk, with only 15 confirmed positive tests reported from the 58,000 thousand attendees across all the events.