Covid-19: Museums, Galleries and Historic Buildings

Baroness Doocey Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Doocey (LD)]

My Lords, weddings in historic buildings provide an income stream that helps to pay the repair bill. The closure of these wedding venues therefore represents a heritage protection crisis as much as an economic crisis. There are three ways in which the Government can help. First, allow couples planning a wedding to be shown the facilities, which will enable historic buildings to start securing bookings again and help their cash flow. If estate agents can show people around houses, surely historic buildings can show wedding venues?

Secondly, allow weddings to resume, subject to restrictions of course: limiting capacity, pre-vetting and contact tracking—whatever is required.

Thirdly, as a pilot, allow weddings to take place outside, without the need for a permanent structure, as proposed by the Law Commission. The Government need urgently to remove the risk to this £10 billion a year industry by allowing wedding venues to open in June rather than July.