The Right Honourable the Baron Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the County of Durham, First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Business and Secretary of State for Innovation and Skills, and Church CommissionerSo Mandy is to continue with the music licencing levy which will cost voluntary groups up to £20m in extra cash.
Bascially if you have a radio in a charity shop staff room, hire out a church hall for discos etc, or maybe you run a sports club, then now you will have to pay a licence for music.
140,000 charities, 6,750 charity shops, 66,440 sports clubs, 4,000 community buildings, 5,000 rural halls and 45,000 religious buildings will be affected.
This is intolerable and will effect communities the length and breadth of the UK. The hiring of church halls gives much needed revenue to parishes, let alone what the effect will be on fund-raisers for sports clubs, charities etc.
As Cranmer puts it:
Having effectively shut down post offices and local pubs, Labour Ministers now have our village halls, scout huts, charity shops and church halls in their sights. This is a heartless charge on community buildings and charities.