Member

The hall did not reach that position by accident. It did not randomly become the only major such venue in London free of needing a £20 million annual top-up from the Arts Council. The five other top venues in London are chewing up a total of £100 million a year—money that could, for example, be spent on the arts in the regions instead. The hall reached its enviable position precisely because of its governance structure. It is odd that an amendment should be put before this House to try to undermine that governance, away from the current successful model towards the kind of governance model that, on extensive evidence, would seem incapable of making a modern, large concert venue financially successful or so universally popular.