Businesses up and down our country have faced pressures they never expected, challenges they never predicted and hardships they never sought. Rightly, this Government stepped up and came to their aid in their hour of need.
From the hospitality, retail and tourism grants, to business rate relief, the furlough scheme, the job retention scheme, bounce back loans and discretionary grants system – this Government has provided one of the most generous and supportive packages of economic measures to our businesses anywhere in the world.
However, representing a coastal community, that has at its core an economy dependent on tourism, the arts, music, creative sectors and hospitality, we have been disproportionately hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hastings and Rye is a beautiful constituency, which has seen a revival in recent years of its music scene, artistic events, creative kinship and gastronomic offerings. You only have to compare Hastings Old Town of fifteen years ago with today, to see the massive winds of change that have blown through our streets.
However, those that have helped to revive parts of this beautiful constituency, are themselves now in need of support. For they are the freelancers that are the backbone of many of these sectors and have thus far gone without much Government support at all.
From musicians to artists, writers to journalists, to actors and performers. They put the soul and the beat into the streets of Hastings, and it can only be right that we support them now at their moment of need, because once Covid-19 is over and we our out in the streets celebrating once more, we will want our musicians, actors and artists there to entertain, to inspire and to lift us up after this dark episode in human history.
When we look at the creative sector across the UK, there is a workforce of 200,000+ playing to a theatre-going public of 34 million. They are the point of connection with audiences up and down the land and an engine of the industry’s economic growth. But this isn’t just about the performer; it is about the fabric of connections that binds the whole industry together. These performers work in partnership with each other and with theatres, commercial organisations, charitable trusts, schools and local groups. So, by supporting our freelance or self-employed performers, we help the whole industry to stay afloat.
As I have mentioned already, many creative freelancers in Hastings and Rye have supported the town’s revival and economic growth in recent years, and yet they continue to miss out on Government financial support –
- 1 in 3 of the freelance workforce received no support from SEISS / CJRS;
- 1 in 4 of the freelance workforce have been unable to access emergency income of any kind; and,
- 1 in 3 say they are likely to leave the theatre industry altogether.
This is not just about individual finances, it is about experience and skills being lost and young people not encouraged to choose the creative industries as a career.
Being self-employed - a freelancer - in any industry provides the freedom and flexibility to go where the work is, but during coronavirus, for many, work dried up overnight and freelancers continue to struggle as protective measures against coronavirus continue to affect many industries. Numerous freelancers did not have a financial buffer and unlike employees, freelancers were not entitled to be furloughed.
Moreover, we must not forget the small business owners who pay themselves mostly in dividends, often a more flexible way of payment which can keep money in their business to keep it going. Many may have used dividend payments to legally mitigate their tax payments – but there does have to be some encouragement for entrepreneurs taking risks in setting up businesses and employing people.
The Government rightly took the bold and necessary decisions to provide an exceptional package of financial support to businesses up and down our land, but now the Government must go further and support our freelancers and the self-employed as we turbo-charge our economy out of the pandemic.
For we as a community, will look to our creative freelancers once all this is over to lift our spirits once more and inspire us on into happier, healthier and more prosperous days.