Dear

As your constituent and a freelancer in Northern Ireland’s (NI’s) once-thriving [music/events/arts – delete as appropriate] sector, I am writing to ask you to lobby the Office of the First and deputy First Minister, the Minister for the Economy and the Minister for Finance, all of whom have input into the regulations and support packages that could and will have a huge effect on both my livelihood and the future of the NI economy.

In July, the UK Government pledged an investment of £1.57bn to cultural, art and heritage organisations to protect the world class creative output across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The amount of £33m was subsequently allocated to the NI Executive; this 'emergency grant' money has now languished with the Executive for almost 12 weeks.

Due to the nature of funding allocation in NI, we understand that the entirety of this money may not go to where it was intended and we are calling on the Executive and the Ministers for the Economy and for Finance to allocate the total amount of £33m to the Arts and Creative Industries which are on the brink of collapse. At the same time, a number of measures have been introduced, without full and proper consultation, curtailing the operations of the arts and hospitality sectors.

As such, I am asking you and your colleagues to lobby the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to ask them to reverse their decision to end the Job Retention Scheme on 31 October.

Targeted support must be introduced for our sector; otherwise we risk seeing music – and the wider arts sector – completely decimated and devastated, leading to job losses, skills migration and poorer economic and cultural output. Governments in other countries such as France, Germany, Spain and the USA have extended their support for workers through sector support schemes. Please do what you can to persuade our government to do the same.



Now is the time to stand up for music [insert other art form if applicable] - stand up for jobs - stand up for the future.