Written evidence submitted by the Lighting Hospital

To whom it may concern,

              As the director of a small company that has been running profitably for over 10 years now. All our work is from the entertainments industry but we are not at the front line putting on the shows.  It concerns me that we may get overlooked in any help that the Government my offer in the future. Pretty much all our work has ceased since social gatherings were stopped. We are an electronics repair company that specialises in repairing the electronic used in Stage Lighting and LED video walls. We work with many well know theatres and equipment rental houses. Since shows were stopped, we have furloughed our staff which is all fine for now. My concern is if after 3 months the furlough scheme is stopped, we will still be in a position of very little work with no prospect of this improving until early next year or even some have talked about next summer. We have had 1 payment of £10,000 from our local council but this really wont do us more than 3 months.

              We need help and confirmation that firstly we are recognised as being part of the Entertainments Industry and secondly that we will be financially helped for far longer than other industries that will be back to something close to normal in a matter of a few months. We are members of PLASA , The Professional Lighting and Sound Association  https://www.plasa.org and hope that this will be enough for you to see how involved we are with the industry.

              Being that we are an Electronic Repair Company, when the industry does kick back in we will do very well as companies will not be buying new in favour of having their existing equipment repaired. We just need financial help getting there.

              I hope this helps in seeing our position now and in the coming months.

Dik Welland

Director