Eurovision venue operators owe £7.1m to Liverpool City Council

The venue regularly hosts shows by leading names in music and events such as the World Gymnastics Championship

The firm which operates the host venue for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest owes about £7.1m to the local authority, a council meeting has heard.

Liverpool City Council heard the ACC Liverpool Group, which runs M&S Bank Arena, accrued debt from 2015 to 2020.

The firm said £2.6m of "in year trading sums" will be paid before "financial year end" and a payment plan had been agreed for the remainder.

The council's finance director said it had set aside funds to cover a default.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Ian Duncan told a meeting of the finance and resources select committee that £2.5m had been put aside, which he hoped would not be called upon.

He said the use of reserves was "something you would expect to see in the event of a potential default".

He added that a payment plan was being discussed with the firm, but had yet to be signed off.

'Signing new leases'

Committee chairman Barry Kushner said anyone "who has missed one council tax payment would be annoyed by this".

"It equates to all the cuts around anti-poverty measures," he added.

In a statement, the firm's managing director Faye Dyer said the £7.1m balance "comprises £2.6m of in year trading sums, which will be paid prior to the financial year end, alongside £4.5m of historical debt".

"The debt relates to property transactions from 2015 to March 2020, following the expansion of the campus and facilitating a period in which the group successfully grew its market share and presence," she said.

"The benefits of this support are being recouped over the longer period of investment.

"We have set out a number of options for the council to recover this historical debt in our recent business plan and look forward to finalising this, alongside signing new leases, later this year."

A huge stage, inspired by what the BBC called "a wide hug", will be built in the venue for Eurovision

She said the firm's "trading results continue to recover after a successful return to full capacity live events following the pandemic and our financial performance now facilitates the transfer of further property-related cost obligations to ourselves, reducing future expenditure for Liverpool City Council".

"We are proud to have played a key role in the renaissance of Liverpool since 2008 and we look forward to continuing our positive relationship with Liverpool City Council, boosting the city region's image as a place in which to live, work and invest," she added.

Liverpool Council previously said it would be changing the "governance and oversight" of the site, which would include transferring responsibility for repairs and maintenance to the firm.

The arena at King's Dock is one of three venues on the site run by the firm, along with ACC Liverpool and Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

It has been the venue for many events since it opened in 2008, including the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships, and will see two shows from Sir Elton John in March before it hosts the Eurovision semi-finals and Grand Final in May.

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