Discrimination against working-class people in the cultural sector should be illegal, according to a new report on employment.
Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who is chair of the Lowry arts venue in Salford and spearheaded the report, said class was a “core inclusion issue”, and unspoken barriers to the arts were “crushing creativity”.
The survey received 300 responses from working-class creatives, who ranged from emerging teen artists to BAFTA and Emmy Award winners, as part of a project supported by the University of Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Co-op.
Per BBC News, over half of respondents said they had experienced harassment or bias due to their social background. Afzal now joins calls from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) union and the Co-op in calling for socioeconomic background to become the 10th protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act.
The review, which surveyed people mainly based in or from Greater Manchester, said Britain’s creative industries “shape how the country sees itself”, but that access to those industries remained “unequal”.
“Entry routes still depend on who you know. Early roles still pay too little to live on,” it said. “Progression still favours those who can absorb risk. Many people leave before their careers begin.”
Glenn Tillbrook performs at the Music Venue Trust annual report 2025 at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Credit: Georgia Penny
Several musicians touched on about being offered “exposure” instead of payment, something only those already financially secure could afford to do. In fact, the report found only 44 per cent of respondents earned enough to make a living, with many taking on second jobs. This once again means that only those from wealthier backgrounds are afforded the time, energy and financial freedom to commit to their creative craft.
Back in 2024, this culminated in a study revealing that less than one in 10 people working in film and television in the UK are from working class backgrounds, the lowest the figure had been in a decade.
Afzal said the review “spreads power beyond London” after many respondents said they had to move to the capital to develop an arts career. “We are not going to break down barriers that are crushing creativity until we build an arts sector that treats class as a core inclusion issue,” he said.
As a result of the survey, the Manchester-based Co-op firm is spearheading support for 200 new arts and creative apprenticeships in the area.
It come after The Music Venue Trust shared their annual report, showing another worrying year for the grassroots in 2025. Revealing their findings last Tuesday (January 20), MVT reported that 30 grassroots music venues closed forever between July 2024 and July 2025 while 48 stopped operating as gig spaces.
Of those that survive, an average profit margin of just 2.5 per cent saw a staggering 53.8 per cent of grassroots venues report no profit in the last 12 months, with a loss of over 6,000 jobs (just shy of 20 per cent) across the year.
The crowd for Turnstile at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
Employer National Insurance increases are among the main driver of job losses in the sector, and an increase in business rates has proven devastating too. The grassroots sector subsidised live music by £76.6million in 2025, while recent larger shows at arena and stadium level saw UK live music contribute a record-breaking £8billion to the economy.
More action is still required on the government back arena ticket levy to save grassroots music to prevent “an even gloomier future”.
“We have reached the absolute limit of what goodwill can possibly absorb,” said Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd last week. “For years, grassroots music venues have quietly carried problems that should never have been theirs to solve. Rising costs. Shifting policy. Regulatory confusion. Political drift. Industry indifference. And because they didn’t collapse overnight, everyone else has been able to pretend that the system more or less works.”
The loss of venues in regional areas across the UK has already caused what many think of a “the complete collapse of touring” in recent years, while last year’s MVT report showed that the UK was losing one music venue every fortnight. Fortunately, 2025 saw the rate of venue decline slow to its lowest point since 2018, but urgent action is needed especially due to recent job losses and a fundamental threat to the live music talent pipeline.
Similarly, last year’s MVT report showed that the UK was losing one music venue every fortnight in 2024, but fortunately, 2025 saw the rate of venue decline slow to its lowest point since 2018.
Efforts to help support grassroots venues have come from bigger spaces like the Royal Albert Hall in London. The historic venue last year became the first arena to commit to a LIVE ticket levy to help support grassroots venues. That levy sees £1 from every ticket sold invested back into the UK’s live music scene.
Earlier this week, Green leader Zack Polanski sat down with NME to discuss fighting for young people and culture.
Polanski, a former theatre actor, said the first place he’d start was grassroots arts spaces, “to ensure we’re subsidising and supporting it. It’s an amazing leveller; particularly in working class communities. People from marginalised communities making art is a fundamental way to tell your story.
“There’s a huge problem where if the story you’re telling isn’t the establishment status quo story, then you don’t get funding. We need to look at a different model where challenges to the establishment are able to be supported.”
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