AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 62

1. EVENTS WILL GO ON BOOSTING COUNCILS’ INCOME
Chapters two and four outlined the benefits of events to SMEs and to
the UK economy. We now turn to the wider and deeper benefits that
events could offer localities in 2030, and to the major challenges and
opportunities they present.
Cities benefit from events more easily than counties or regions. Over
any year and in any one area, rural events will tend to bring revenues in
just once, while urban ones, and certainly urban clubs, will bring them
in more continuously. That is a tangible support to local authorities.
The more local authorities are forced to earn more of their keep
themselves, the more they may come to regard events not just as
something to be endured, but as useful sources of income. Since, as
the Local Government Association (LGA) reminds us, councils are also
now required to prepare a formal investment strategy at least once a
year, council initiatives around events, and the returns reaped from
events, will be more public, and more publicly accountable.
This new municipal transparency around events could be useful.
It means that people will be able to review the successes and failures
of their own and other local authorities, and learn from them. It also
means that successful local authority innovations in events can be
systematised nationally. For example, in turning a large local prison
into a business park, Rutland County Council made sure to add leisure
facilities and an ‘events zone’ to the site, so taking advantage of its old
security features and architecture. Today, Oakham Enterprise Park
welcomes sports clubs in to what might otherwise be a purely business
environment. In achieving 100 per cent occupancy, it has also given
space to events and film companies. The result is a welcome £250,000
annual surplus, for Rutland to use as it sees fit.
According to the LGA, one of the key lessons from Rutland’s exercise
is simply this: ‘Be brave’.
In the future, councils will need daring everywhere, if they’re
to use events to help diversify their sources of income. Yet local
democratic oversight of council events initiatives could, handled
properly, increase that daring
2. EVENTS WILL BRING NEW MONEY AND BREATHE NEW
LIFE INTO URBAN GREEN SPACES
How much income are events likely to generate for local authorities
between now and 2030? The example of urban music festivals held in
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