‘Heartbroken’ at lack of help for industry
A Perth-based PR company has launched a stinging attack on the Scottish Government for a lack of support for the events industry.
Tricia Fox, CEO of Volpa, has written an open letter to the cabinet secretary for economy, fair work and culture Fiona Hyslop criticising the £10 million the government has pledged as part of the Event Industry Support Fund.
Ms Fox, who described herself as “heartbroken and enraged”, said her own company was not eligible to apply to the fund, despite its involvement in events like the Scottish Game Fair and the Enchanted Forest.
And she said Volpa faces making redundancies due to a lack of support from the government.
The company has already cut two jobs and put the rest of the staff on a four-day working week.
It comes as another events company, Bridge of Earnbased Catalyst, made 19 people redundant.
Ms Fox said the fund was “barely going to scratch the surface of the widespread decimation that the events industry has seen since the start of the pandemic”.
She said only 600 businesses in the supply chain will be assisted and that Volpa could not apply because “we have had the temerity to provide office accommodation for the staff we employ, who deliver our multi-award-winning work”.
She added: “As a business, we now face the genuine challenge of getting through the traditionally lean winter period on minimal income and, with furlough coming to an end, our people costs ramping back up again.
“I appreciate I’m no John Maynard Keynes, but even I can project the economic outcome of this scenario.
“As a result of the sustained nature of this downturn, we have already had to take the regrettable decision to make people redundant despite the furlough grant, and I now have my remaining team adopting a four-day week with effect from October 1 in order to avoid (hopefully) making anyone else redundant. In short, we can’t rule that out either.
“I know I am not alone in facing this situation. I spoke to another event supply operator who was forced into making 19 people redundant just last week for exactly the same reasons.
“There are a great many small businesses, employers, who are in the same boat, and not just in the events industry.
“It astounds me that our government is presiding over a recovery programme that is seeing so many excellent, market leading companies facing complete ruination because the support they need to get through this is simply not there.
“It seems to me that the government’s strategy is, from what I can gather, ‘give each business £10k and see how many can survive’.
“If you think £10,000 will cover our wage bills and overheads for months, then you are greatly deluded. “
A spokesperson for the
Scottish Government said: ““We understand this is a deeply difficult time for those in the events industry and that the restrictions necessary to suppress COVID-19 have been particularly damaging and we are taking a careful and measured approach to the resumption of live events.
“We know this is a sector which will face difficulties for some time to come which is why we announced additional funding of £10 million for those in the events industry, on top of £2.3 billion of business support.
“The Events Industry Support Fund announced this week was created with input from the newly formed Event Industry Advisory Group (EIAG) and specifically designed to support event industry businesses which have not received any of the existing Scottish Government sponsored COVID-related funding schemes.
“Given their significant borrowing powers which the Scottish Government doesn’t have, we continue to urge the UK Government for additional funding, such as the continuation of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which will be crucial for the sector’s long term recovery.”