The night-time economy isn't cultural garnish or some nice to have, It's a jobs machine, a city-builder, and a test of whether this government actually means what it says it does about growth.

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There's a particular kind of political theatre I think that Britain has perfected over the decades where the ministerial appearance at an industry summit (I'vee been to many) and the warm words about workers and communities, or the photo opportunity with someone who actually does the thing being celebrated, is then basically followed by a return to Westminster, where the policies that are slowly strangling that industry remain completely intact.Angela Rayner's appearance at the Liverpool Night Time Economy Summit is not, in itself, a problem I welcome it, I want it to happen, I am so keen it works and Liverpool is the right room to be in. The conversation is the right conversation to be having. The problem is the gap between the register of that conversation and the actual governing decisions that shape whether a bar owner in Toxteth can afford to stay open past midnight or whether a security worker in the Northern Quarter can get home after a shift and whether a 300-capacity music venue in Leeds can survive another round of business rates revaluation.That gap isn't small, it is wider and it's structural and it's been widening for years.I saw this first-hand, during my time as Chief Business Officer at Defected Records. We watched the pandemic hollow out the night-time workforce in real time as a roll call of people we knew personally: sound engineers, lighting technicians and managers. Venue staff who had spent years building expertise in one of the most operationally complex and culturally vital industries in the country suddenly found........

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