Since 2015, Music Venue Trust has been campaigning for the UK government to introduce Agent of Change into UK Law. John Spellar MP is introducing a Private Members Bill on 10 January 2018 which would make Agent of Change a reality.

The Agent of Change Principle is not complicated or controversial, it’s simple common sense: Agent of Change says that the person or business responsible for the change is responsible for managing the impact of the change.

This means that an apartment block to be built near an established live music venue would have to pay for soundproofing, while a live music venue opening in a residential area would be responsible for the costs. A resident who moves next door to a music venue would, in law, be assessed as having made that decision understanding that there’s going to be some music noise, and a music venue that buys a new PA would be expected to carry out tests to make sure its noise emissions don’t increase.

At the moment, UK law says that whoever is making a nuisance is always responsible for that nuisance. If a noise exists, you can deliberately move next to it and demand it be turned off and UK law will support you. You can build balsawood huts next door to a music venue and simply wait for your residents to complain and the venue will have to pay all the costs to reduce their noise. This is unfair and unreasonable. John Spellar's Bill will stop it.

We need to send a strong and powerful message to Parliament that the UK's Grassroots Music Venues are important to our local communities and to our music industry. It's simple common sense to protect music venues from people moving into new flats next door and complaining they can hear music, and insist that developers who want to build next door to music venues take the responsibility of making sure our music venues can continue to be in our towns and cities.