The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that aims to help make a case for music studios to be included in the government’s rates cut for venues. Although such cuts were announced for music venues by Andy Burnham on his second day as Prime Minister, studios are still not included in the proposed plans.
Although the MPG met with the Treasury earlier in 2026, they were unable to provide specific, objective data that could be used to make a case for rates cuts to be applied to studios. The key questions raised were:
- How much have rateable values actually gone up?
- How many studios will shut if nothing changes?
- What does that cost?
- How big a cut is actually needed?
So, the organisation set about creating a detailed survey that will gather as much evidence as possible ahead of the next Budget. Here’s what the MPG have to say:
“This is an in-depth survey, so it will need 15 minutes, maybe 20 at the outside, if you have to go digging. It is fairly technical, and we’re sorry about that. It’ll be much easier if you've got your rates bill nearby. If you haven't, you can look your rateable value up on gov.uk in about a minute by searching "find your business rates valuation". Rough figures are completely fine on the money questions — they're all optional, and estimates still do the job. If you can get it back to us by 3 September 2026, we’ll have time to pull it all together before we're back in the room.”
The survey can be found via the link below.
