Originally featured in the July edition of Venue Insight magazine
Having recently celebrated our 20th year in business, it’s safe to say we’ve seen just how susceptible the night time leisure industry is to change. New laws, new consumer habits, new technologies; they’ve all contributed to an understandable uncertainty from nightclubs and venues.
The one sure thing about this industry is that there aren’t any sure things. Within the insurance sector alone 2018 has seen brand new claims regarding acoustic shock, discrimination and noise pollution among others.
But at the same time, positive steps are being taken to ensure that the night time industry has a voice against all the challenges. The NTIA are doing incredible work, whether that’s through social media hashtags, industry trade fairs or their very recent push for a new night time economy advisor for Manchester (congratulations to Sacha Lord).
Through their work, the NTIA are standing up for the independent businesses and those whose voice alone may not be loud enough. But in order to win the fight, you have to be able to afford the fight.
Too many venues are unable to challenge legal cases against them, fearing that the cost if unsuccessful, would be crippling. The most famous case of this kind was against Fabric nightclub in London, which was closed by authorities in 2016 after two drugs-related deaths on the premises. It was eventually reopened, but only after a campaign had to raise over £200,000 for legal costs.
That case, and hundreds more like it, is why NDML wanted to use our 20 years’ experience to create an insurance product that wasn’t just for show. We wanted to devise something that would actually protect venues against all the new and differing claims that are affecting the industry.
For us, it was about getting venues the help they’d need for traditional insurance policy claims, but also for if the police come knocking at 1am in the morning trying to close their venue down. It’s a case of understanding the different pressures venues deal with.
So we worked together with legal experts, Rradar and the NTIA, to develop a stand-alone insurance product that has not been seen before. Our NDML Business Protection, which is exclusive to NTIA members is designed to provide free legal advice up to £100,000 for all policyholders.
NDML Business Protection provides legal support for a range of key issues that the late night industry face from licensing and tax investigation to planning disputes.
The NDML Business Protection product has been exclusively developed with the NTIA to offer a real added value support to members.
The protection looks at all aspects of a legal challenge and includes:
- Full legal support on a range of legal and regulatory issues including licensing, planning issues and health and safety breaches.
- Crisis legal helpline – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That means venues are supported during their working hours, not just the standard 9-5.
- Crisis public relations advice – provided by one of the UK’s leading crisis public relations consultants Chelgate Limited. When venues suffer legal challenges, it’s not just their finances that are put under pressure. It’s their reputation too.
- Director and Officers cover to personally protect the directors of the business in the event of personal prosecution.
- Employee dishonesty cover up to £50,000 for any one claim.
- Tax Protection cover to pay your defence costs for any Tax investigation.
- A free health and safety review by a qualified health and safety professional.
And it includes use of an app to make sure customers can access advice in the easiest way possible.
The NTIA connection is key for us.
We’re not taking advantage of an industry facing pressures; we genuinely care about night time leisure and want to see it thrive. It’s important to us that our product acts in conjunction with a plan and direction to minimise these risks.
And that’s why we’re proud to be the appointed broker to the NTIA.
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