Jul 23 • Jo Cox-Brown

Why Nightlife Spaces Should Follow Traditional Arts and Put Their Buildings into a Trust or CIC

Nightlife venues and cultural hubs have long driven creativity, community, and urban renewal.

Yet, too often, their futures are precarious, leaving them vulnerable to commercial pressures, planning disputes, or redevelopment. It’s time for the nightlife sector to take a cue from traditional arts organisations and secure their spaces through charitable trusts or Community Interest Companies (CICs).

Protecting Cultural Spaces for the Long Term

Unlike many commercial venues, theatres, galleries, and heritage sites are often held in charitable trusts or not-for-profit structures, which bind them to serving a public good. This means they can’t be sold off for private gain or repurposed outside of their mission.

I first tried this in 2008 with the Malt Cross Music Hall in Nottingham. We created a charitable trust that owned the building, and a Ltd trading company that leased it. This gave us the best of both worlds: a protected heritage venue aligned with charitable goals, and a trading company that could operate a bar, café, and events programme. The result? A resilient, creative space that could access funding and run sustainably.

This model ensures that what was built by artists, promoters and local people isn’t lost to property speculation or short-term thinking.

Access to Funding That Private Venues Can’t Reach:

Arts organisations benefit from millions in grant funding each year. Whether it’s Arts Council England, the National Lottery, or private foundations, these streams are closed mainly to for-profit businesses. But when a charity or CIC holds a venue, it becomes eligible. For example:

  • Night Group CIC, which operates Night Tales and NT’s Loft in Hackney, used a not-for-profit model to unlock support for major capital works. With a hybrid structure, they’ve balanced commercial events with long-term investment into infrastructure, accessibility, and sound-proofing.
  • The Drumsheds, held by the charity Nine Point Eight, is developing cultural infrastructure and reinvesting all profits into creative development, training, and access programmes.

This approach opens doors to public investment, philanthropic grants, and social finance that are not accessible to traditional commercial operators.
Jo cox-brown

What else?

Tax Relief & Business Rate Discounts

Charities receive 80–100% business rate relief and are exempt from corporation tax on most forms of income. CICs can also benefit from tax efficiencies and grant eligibility, mainly when reinvesting profits into social purpose.

In high-footfall, high-cost venues, these savings provide critical financial headroom for reinvestment.

Building Public Trust & Community Support

Normal Charitable or CIC status boosts public trust, stakeholder support, and community legitimacy. It shows that a venue isn’t just about profit – it’s about impact. This can:.
  • Ease tensions around licensing or noise concerns
  • Attract partnerships from local authorities and national cultural bodies
  • Build stronger community ties, especially in areas facing gentrification or cultural loss

Creating the Right Structure: Charity, CIC or Hybrid?

This isn’t about abandoning commercial success – it’s about aligning it with purpose.
As we did at the Malt Cross, many successful venues adopt a hybrid model:
  • A charity or CIC owns the venue and sets the strategic mission.
  • A trading subsidiary leases and operates the space, generating profits that are returned to the parent charity.
This model offers flexibility + protection. You get the best of both worlds: cultural mission and financial sustainability.
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Final thoughts

Nightlife is culture. It’s art, it’s memory, it’s movement. And it deserves the same protections as concert halls, theatres, or galleries.

If we want to end the cycle of beloved venues being lost to rent hikes, buyouts or redevelopment, we need a new approach – one that treats nightlife as a vital part of the cultural ecosystem.

Putting nightlife buildings into trusts, charities or CICs isn’t just a financial or legal choice. It’s a declaration: This space matters. This story deserves to continue.