British live music is in crisis. Over half of the UK's music venues are failing to make a profit and, every day without action, they fall closer to shutting their doors permanently.

Grassroots music venues, the very places where artists shape their craft and build a following before moving on to the next stages of their career, have been lost despite more of us than ever before seeing live music.  These music venues also account for tens of thousands of jobs in the music industry, from sound engineers to bar staff.

For more than three years, the Music For The Many campaign has lobbied the government to take action to prevent the closure of these invaluable independently run community creative spaces. These calls have fallen on deaf or unwilling ears, and over 6000 jobs in the live music sector have been lost and countless more put at imminent risk.

That is why we are calling on Andy Burnham, when he assumes the office of British Prime Minister, to take immediate action to save our grassroots music venues by:

• Introducing a mandatory ticket levy on the corporate sponsors of large arena and stadium concerts to be invested back into grassroots music venues
• Cutting damaging business rates on grassroots music venues in order to reduce unsustainable running costs
• Implementing the recommendations of the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee's Grassroots Music Venues 2024 report

Andy Burnham has built much of his political identity heavily around Manchester's proud musical heritage and has supported key initiatives to reduce financial stresses on local music venues and support the night time economy as Mayor of Greater Manchester.

With his coronation Prime Minister looking more likely by the day, we are calling on him to put his promising words into urgent action on a national scale.

Sign this petition. Tell Andy Burnham to back British live music and save our grassroots music venues.