The UK Government has announced a new, UK-wide scheme that will allow festivals, sports and live music events to go ahead.
The Live Events Reinsurance scheme will ensure that the live events industry, here in the Borders and across the UK, can secure insurance cover in the event that coronavirus restrictions stop them going ahead.
This world-leading scheme, worth £750m, will support thousands of jobs by enabling the sector to resume planning and investment for the year ahead.
Previously, organisers have been unable to plan due to uncertainty about what coronavirus restrictions will look like at the time. This scheme addresses that problem, and will give event organisers across Scotland the confidence to plan events over the next year.
The scheme is open to live ticketed events that are open to the general public and are physically located in the UK. This includes live music events, festivals, sports, trade shows and business events.
Local MP, John Lamont, believes this will allow local Borders organisations to go ahead and plan their events.
John Lamont MP said:
“It has been sad to see iconic Borders events like the Melrose Sevens and others cancelled over the last 18 months. Our cultural and sporting events have been sorely missed, not to mention the loss of the economic benefit to our local communities.
“This new Live Events Reinsurance scheme will allow events like these across the UK to go ahead once again without the risk of losing huge amounts of money if it were to be called off last minute.
“The live events sector is worth more than £70 billion annually to the economy and supports more than 700,000 jobs, including small businesses and the self-employed.
“This new scheme could really inject some much needed confidence into the Borders events sector so that we can all enjoy what they have to offer once again.”
