🇬🇧UK Govt launches $1 Billion Insurance Program
In an effort to save the struggling live events industry in the UK, the British govt launches a $1 Billion fund
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Happy Monday everyone!
In what is like a ‘shot in the arm’ for the live music industry in the UK, ironical given that prominent British artists have been controversially anti-vaxxers (*cough* Eric Clapton *cough*); the UK Government has announced the launch of a $1 Billion Insurance scheme 💰
What is it exactly?
Over the weekend, the Chancellor (Finance Minister in Shakespearean) of the UK, Rishi Sunak, announced the launch of the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme as part of the wider initiative of the government called Plan for Jobs 👨🏻🔧
The scheme will be delivered through insurers with events organizers able to purchase cover for government-enforced cancellation due to the event being legally unable to happen due to Government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions ❌
Basically, if you’re an event organizer of a music festival, and Government enforced Covid restrictions mean that you have to cancel it, the insurance covers your cost ✅
Fair enough right?
Launched in partnership with Lloyds Bank, the second-biggest bank in the UK, it is “one of the only insurance schemes in the world to cover such a wide array of live events and not put a cap on costs claimed per event”.
So what happens when an event gets canceled? 🤔
In such a scenario, after organizers have covered the agreed excess, the government says that it and insurers have an agreed risk share per claim 🤝
This starts with the government paying 95% and insurers 5%, progressing to them covering 97% and 3% respectively and finally government covering 100% of costs.
The split depends on the losses incurred by the insurer from the scheme to date and will be available from September ‘21 onwards
Live Music is a big deal in the UK 🇬🇧
The live events sector in the UK is estimated to be worth more than £70 billion annually to the economy and supports more than 700,000 jobs, including small businesses and the self-employed.
Britain is home to some of the biggest music festivals in the world, and has a very rich culture of the original ‘Gig Economy’; tracing back to the 60s and the rise of rock music.
With over 170,000 jobs reportedly lost owing to the pandemic, even before the end of 2020, this insurance scheme has been welcomed by the industry.
Speaking on the same, Chancellor Sunak tweeted his plan of action 👇🏻
While a major chunk of the music industry has adopted virtual concerts and events, something we covered in a previous edition of this newsletter, it’s interesting to see that the British government is still hanging onto support the traditional live music industry.
After all, it makes up almost 4% of their total GDP 🤷♂️
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