The UK theatre sector last week called on the Chancellor Of The Exchequer to use his autumn budget statement next month to extend existing tax relief schemes to help “keep theatre touring on the road, protect live performance venues and ensure more people can enjoy world-class performance in the communities where they live”.

In a statement, trade body UK Theatre said that theatre producers are being “forced to cut towns and venues from tour routes” because rising costs have made adding extra dates to theatre tours commercially unviable.

It added, “from pantomime to Shakespeare, from major musicals to community-led productions, theatre brings culture, creativity and shared experiences to communities across the country”.

It also has a positive economic impact on towns and cities, because “audiences bring vital footfall to high streets across the country – for every £1 spent on a theatre ticket, a further £1.40 is spent locally in restaurants, shops, and pubs”.

Having shows tour around regional theatres is “essential to making theatre accessible to everyone”, the trade group continues, but “sharply rising travel, freight, energy and business rates costs, alongside higher national insurance contributions, are now making visits to smaller and medium-sized towns increasingly unviable”.

As a result, UK Theatre says, domestic touring activity in the UK fell by 24% between 2019 and 2024, and if you focus specifically on touring plays and drama, there was a much more dramatic 64% decline.

UK Theatre wants Chancellor John Healey to make two amendments to the UK’s existing theatre tax relief scheme. First, change the rules so that “unavoidable touring transfer costs such as freight” would be eligible for that relief.

And second, reduce the number of performances opera and ballet productions need to stage in order to qualify for the scheme, on the basis it’s difficult for productions of that nature to meet the current minimum of fourteen performances.

In addition to that, UK Theatre is also calling for the current business rates relief available to pubs and live music venues to be extended to theatres and other live performance spaces.

Claire Walker and Hannah Essex, the co-CEOs of both UK Theatre and the Society Of London Theatre, say these proposals “are practical and affordable”, and “would help producers add dates, enable opera and ballet to reach more audiences, and give local venues greater confidence to programme ambitious work”.