Member News

Then choose The Feed for your catering because:

• It’s all prepared fresh in our Norwich kitchen
• We cater for a range of dietary needs
• We use local suppliers and can deliver in and around the city
• Our profits are used to prevent poverty, hunger and homelessness

Menus and how to order here: https://thefeed.org.uk/catering Email kitchen@thefeed.org.uk with your enquiry.

Could your adopted cat, dog or exotic pet be the new star of our Adoption Packs?! We are looking for the face of our next series of adoption packs which are given out with every animal that finds its forever home through our Branch. There are three categories: cats, dogs and exotics (rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, reptiles etc.) and the competition is open to anyone who has adopted their pet from us. All you have to do to enter is send us your favourite photo of your pet looking picture perfect to woof@rspcanorwich.org by Friday 27th January 2023 Enter and your pet could be the next star of our adoption packs and receive a Pets at Home voucher! Enter here Sign up to our newsletter here

Norfolk’s £612.9 million county deal, to bring more powers and funding to Norfolk, will be considered by county councillors next week (January 17^th). Norfolk’s full county council meets at 10am on Tuesday, January 17^th to discuss the in-principle deal that was reached with the Government last month, before the council’s cabinet decides whether to proceed with the deal, later the same day. County council leader Councillor Andrew Proctor, who signed the in-principle deal with the Government last month, said: “Norfolk is well positioned to gain additional powers and money to improve people’s lives, thanks to the County Deal we have agreed in principle with the Government. “The aim is for decisions and funding previously controlled in Westminster to be agreed in Norfolk, for Norfolk. “Striking a deal will help us to boost our economy through more jobs, training, housing and development, to improve our transport network and to support our environment. “Getting to this point shows that the Government sees Norfolk as a can-do county. I’m confident that we can make a success of this and that more powers and funding would follow.” If cabinet decides to proceed, a six week public consultation on the deal will be launched on February 6^th. The report to both meetings says: “Devolution offers a generational opportunity to unlock significant long-term funding and gain greater freedom to decide how best to meet local needs and create new opportunities for the people who live and work in Norfolk. Some decisions and funding previously controlled in Westminster will now be decided by Norfolk, for Norfolk. “If the devolution deal is agreed, it will provide Norfolk with new powers, devolved funding and additional investment of £612.9m over the next 30 years to help us to boost our economy through jobs, training and development, improve our transport network and support our environment.” The report recommends that full council considers the full text of the in-principle deal and note that proceeding with the deal is a decision for cabinet. If cabinet agrees to proceed with the deal, when it meets after full council, public consultation will take place in February and full council will consider the change to an elected council leader, in or around December. For further details on the county deal, including the full text, see www.norfolk.gov.uk/norfolkcountydeal . You can watch the full council meeting, live or afterwards, from 10am on Tuesday, January 17^th onwards at https://norfolkcc.cmis.uk.com/norfolkcc/CalendarofMeetings/tabid/128/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/496/Meeting/2088/Committee/2/SelectedTab/Documents/Default.aspx . You can watch the cabinet meeting, live or afterwards, after full council at https://norfolkcc.cmis.uk.com/norfolkcc/CalendarofMeetings/tabid/128/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/496/Meeting/2089/Committee/169/SelectedTab/Documents/Default.aspx . Background: According to the report, the deal would mean that, from 2024 onwards, the county council could:

• target funding and resources to Norfolk’s own priorities, with a new investment fund of £20m per year for 30 years
• unlock housing and employment sites with an injection of £12.9m capital funding in this Spending Review period and new powers to drive regeneration, housing and development priorities
• invest in the skills we know we need, with devolution of the adult education budget and input into the new Local Skills Improvement Plans
• invest in local transport planning and consolidate transport budgets to direct funding to better meet our local needs and priorities
• strengthen the local business voice to inform local decision making and strategic economic planning through the future integration of New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership
• have a council leader who is directly elected by the public, with the first election in May 2024
• raise our influence regionally and nationally, enabling our voice to be better heard by Government to shape future policies and funding decisions for the benefit of our County

If you have any questions or wish to register for updates, please email countydeal@norfolk.gov.uk .

TRUSTEES St Edmunds Society, a Charitable Incorporated organisation (CIO) in Norfolk of more than fifty years standing, is looking for new trustees – particularly those able to offer experience of safeguarding and who could offer a strong personal commitment to the Charity’s aims and objectives. As an alternative provider within the education arena St Eds offers an exciting and diverse range of vocational training courses aimed at young people who have often felt challenged or out of place in a mainstream educational environment and may have their own particular and complex needs.  It is a charity with exciting plans for the future. You would bring your skills and energy to the charity. Trustees meet six times a year to set and monitor budgets, set the development plan and review progress against it, and consider reports from those responsible for delivery of services.  Trustees with particular knowledge and expertise may also directly support operational staff in delivering the charity’s services to the young people who desperately need it. If you are interested and have some time to spare for a wonderful cause please do get in touch for an informal chat with David Fullman, Chair of Trustees at email: admin@st-eds.org.uk or telephone 01603 622035 See – www.st-eds.org.

• Despite marginal upticks in December, BDO’s Output and Optimism Indices remained well below historic levels as a result of rising inflation and supply chain pressures
• The Employment Index approached a one-year low as businesses responded to the threat of a recession by reining in hiring intentions, which reached a two-year low
• Inflation remains at its highest level since the early 1980s despite a second-consecutive decline in the Inflation Index

Low confidence and productivity among UK businesses continue to drive historic falls in hiring intentions, despite marginal improvements in December, according to the latest Business Trends report from accounting and business advisory firm BDO. BDO’s Output Index increased by 0.08 points last month to 91.65, driven by a marginal uptick in productivity in the services sector. However, the index sits firmly below the 95-point mark overall, regarded as the watershed between growth and contraction, and December marked the index’s second weakest reading since March 2021 when the UK population was still facing COVID-19 restrictions. The continued contraction in output growth – which stems back to July – was driven, in part, by a one-point decline to 93.77 in the Manufacturing Output Index, as global supply chain challenges – such as high energy prices, input material shortages and ongoing geopolitical events – put downward pressure on firms’ output. BDO’s Optimism Index mirrored the slight increase seen in the Output Index, rising by 0.25 points to 91.89, which remains firmly in contractionary territory. This reflects the ongoing pessimism among the services sector fuelled by weakened output and a 9-month decline in the Manufacturing Optimism sub-index amid supply-side pressures. December saw BDO’s Employment Index fall by 0.86 points to 110.99, its weakest reading since January 2022, as businesses respond to waning optimism and productivity growth. Fears of a recession and ongoing macroeconomic headwinds have eroded positive hiring intentions, which now stand at their weakest level since Q4 2020 when the economy faced a new wave of lockdown restrictions caused by the alpha variant of COVID-19. The Inflation Index recorded a second consecutive monthly decline, falling to 117.91. The 0.52-point drop suggests the index has approached a turning point, as it stands at its lowest level since June 2022. Despite this fall, inflation remains at highs not seen since the 1980s, when the lingering effects of oil price turmoil and mass industrial action from the previous decade were driving steep increases in inflation. Peter Harrup, partner and head of East Anglia at BDO LLP, said: “Although output and confidence levels grew slightly in December, the marginal upticks will do little to calm the nerves of UK businesses. Inflation and supply chain pressures are clearly being felt across the board, as employers pause recruitment plans and consider redundancies to manage rising costs. “With an expected recession increasing pressure on the UK economy, firms will be looking for the right support from the Government as it works to encourage growth and confidence in the run-up to the Spring Budget.” Image credits – BDO LLP

LastPass Advice Are you aware of the recent LastPass security incident?  That your password “vault” may have been in the hand of attackers?  Have you seen some of the news but aren’t quite clear on what it all means, or importantly, what you should do now?  Are you looking for some clear advice?  Read on. If you’re reading this article, I’m sure you’re aware of the recent LastPass data breach. In addition to the information publicly released around this incident from LastPass themselves, there is some really good additional information available based on analysis from a number of security experts, many of whom have a detailed understanding of encryption, as well as the specific architecture and process is used by LastPass. A number of these security professionals have also conducted their own testing and documented their findings. A lot of this information is very technical in nature. This article seeks to utilise the information available to provide concerned LastPass customers with some practical, balanced guidance on what you can do to minimise the risks associated with this incident.  If you want to understand the finer detail around what feeds into this advice, I’ll reference and credit the relevant sources at the end of this article. The purpose of this article is not to pass comment or judgement on the LastPass product, processes or how they have dealt with the incident, or to recommend alternative products which may or may not be better (there’s always multiple factors to consider here).  The over-riding aim is to clearly present the potential risks associated with this incident and to provide you with some easy-to-follow advice on how to analyse your level of risk, and sensible next steps to take. The official line from LastPass So firstly, let’s recap briefly what’s happened, as per the information released by LastPass:

• In August 2022, LastPass advised that an unauthorised party gained access to some parts of a development environment and extracted some code and technical information. At this point, LastPass indicated that they could see no evidence of access to any customer data or password vaults
• In September 2022, LastPass issued an update on the above incident following conclusion of their investigations, and again stated that they saw no evidence of access to customer data or encrypted password vaults
• At the end of November 2022, LastPass issued a new communication informing customers that using information obtained in the earlier incident, an unauthorised party was able to gain access to “certain elements” of customers information
• On 22nd of December 2022, LastPass issued an update to the above communication. In this communication, they stated that they had determined that the unauthorised party was able to obtain a backup of customer vault data. This communication contained a great deal more information than the previous statements by LastPass.

You can read all of the communications from LastPass outlined above in the LastPass blog, here: Key points to know about the LastPass Incident Based on reviewing and interpreting all of that, along with detailed analysis from other sources, here’s a few key things to know.

• LastPass haven’t specifically stated whether all customer LastPass vaults have been compromised or whether a subset of customers vaults were affected. We have to therefore assume that is all of them.
• The data that has been compromised is referred to by LastPass as “password vaults”. Vaults contain a whole host of information. Usernames and passwords, along with some other data is encrypted, however not all of the data within these vaults is encrypted.
• The data that is not encrypted, which includes information such as URL’s for websites you visit, can be used straight away to determine which sites and apps you use, and what you have passwords stored for in your vault
• The data which IS encrypted may be temporarily or permanently inaccessible to the attackers. Their ability to decrypt this, and how quickly they might be able to do so depends on a number of factors, a critical one being the strength of your Master Password at the time the vault data was obtained
• The attackers have an offline copy of the data that’s been compromised. This means a few things:
• Changing your LastPass password now will not affect their ability to access the information that they’ve obtained (although it does prevent them accessing your data online in the future)
• You, and LastPass have no control over the data that’s been extracted
• The attackers have as long as they need to utilise the unencrypted data, and decrypt the encrypted data
• Whether or not you have Multifactor Authentication setup for your LastPass account (and you absolutely should have) actually makes no difference to the ability to use the offline data. It does however limit the ability to access your data online if the password is obtained.

How at risk am I from the LastPass incident? As with most security tools, the overall level of security they provide is a combination of the tool itself, and the decision you make.  If anything demonstrates that point, this incident does.  The level of risk therefore is different for each LastPass user. The key questions you need to consider are (answer these as of August, i.e. the point the data was obtained):

• How strong is your Master Password?
• Have you used your Master Password for anything else?
• Is your Master Password similar to other passwords you might have (e.g. do you have a word which you commonly use as part of your password with slight variations across different accounts)?

The questions above all have a bearing on how long it might take to obtain your Master Password (using various different methods) and use it to decrypt your data. Then you need to consider the data itself stored within your vault.  This is mainly sites/apps along with their usernames and passwords, but could also include bank account and card details, notes, PIN numbers, names, addresses, personal/sensitive information that you stored in LastPass to “keep safe”.  Key questions here are:

• Are the site passwords stored within my vault strong, unique passwords, or are there weak and/or reused passwords?
• Which sites/apps stored in my LastPass vault have MFA configured and which do not?
• What sensitive data (apart from usernames/passwords) do I have stored in LastPass and what could an attacker do with it?

As you can see, there a number of questions to ask yourself which will help determine how at risk you are.  This list is not exhaustive.  You can probably determine largely how these fit together.  For example: If your Master Password is the same as you use on other sites, and is weak, and you don’t have MFA on your Gmail account (with the password stored in LastPass) – HIGH RISK Strong, unique Master Password, no weak of reused passwords in the vault, MFA setup on anything containing important data – LOWER RISK You get the idea, but there are a lot of inter-relating factors to consider. Action Plan & Priorities So, this is the piece that you’re probably here for – what do I need to do and in what order – what are the priorities? This will vary depending on your risk, so I’ve tried to create a list which helps you both assess the risk and act accordingly.  I’m not going to attempt to explain in detail the rationale behind the order, but if enough people are interested, I may do a follow up video to explain it. View the process on slideshow 1 Note that this process has been written specifically for stored passwords.  For other items such as secure notes, follow the same priority order depending on what information  was contained in the notes.  If you stored bank card information such as PIN numbers or CVV codes, particularly if you did not have a strong Master Password, it would be wise to change PIN’s or order new cards (in the case of CVV codes). Additional actions

• Be extremely vigilant and on the lookout for phishing emails for ANY accounts that you had stored in LastPass. This is because URL’s (website addresses) of the accounts stored in your vault were NOT encrypted. Over the coming weeks and months, it is highly likely that targeted phishing attempts for sites which may well include reference to the LastPass breach or attempts to gain access to your account will be common.
• You may wish to consider changing your password manager or changing how you authenticate applications and websites by using Single Sign on or newer passwordless technologies. If you do decide to move to a different password manager, do your research and/or take some advice on this – don’t just move to “another” password manager as it may or may not be better for you depending on a whole bunch of factors.
• When implementing MFA, consider more secure mechanisms such as hardware tokens
• If you are using websites or apps that don’t support MFA, consider how seriously these providers take the security of your data, and whether you should continue using them
• If you have One Time or recovery passwords setup for accounts in order to gain access if you forget your password or lost access to your MFA token, I would advise updating these when you change your passwords
• Remove any accounts/password that you are no longer using (make sure your accounts for the sites are de-activated and data deleted)
• Educate yourself further. No matter how much we might know about security, we can always learn more, and things change constantly. There are lots of resources out there, and lots of people and organisations who can help, much of it free.  Visit the National Cyber Security Centre website.  Join your local Cyber Resilience Centre.  Reach out to a security professional.  Above all, take responsibility.  You can’t just leave it to someone else – however “secure” their solution might appear to be on the surface – as this incident has highlighted.

References/Credit The following people and articles were most helpful in putting this article together, through either direct assistance/review or just posting/sharing their knowledge which was useful for researching, and I would like to thank them all. Daniel Card Greg Ford The CyberScale team https://palant.info/2022/12/26/whats-in-a-pr-statement-lastpass-breach-explained/ https://infosec.exchange/@epixoip/109585049354200263

This initiative is all about exploring how managers and leaders in UK firms reach those difficult choices about what is fair, what is appropriate, who has responsibility for what, when it comes to improving workplace wellbeing. The research funding ends on 31^st January, but we would still love to hear more people’s views before that date. We are going to base a series of PrOPEL Hub articles on this work and the richer it is (the more sectors covered), the more those will be relevant to Norfolk businesses. We are speaking with a wide range of #managers and #leaders to explore how different people perceive workplace #wellbeing initiatives and make decisions about what is appropriate. Please add your voice! The interview will take place via phone or video call at a mutually convenient time. Participation is completely voluntary and will take between 45 mins and 1 hour. A full information sheet and consent form will be sent to you before the interview. Next steps: – If you are happy to take part, please contact myself or my colleague Andrea ( andrea.james@uea.ac.uk ) with your name, role in a UK organisation and an indication of a few different times you might be available for a video / phone call before the end of January 2023. Andrea will get back to you to book in a meeting. – If you have further questions, please email either Andrea or myself and arrange for an informal chat with one of our research team before committing to any interview. Take the Survey here

The Petplan Animal Charity Awards are a great opportunity to recognise the hard work and dedication put in by the teams and the individuals within the animal charity sector who have gone that extra mile to help rescue and rehome animals in need. Everyone is eligible to vote and you can choose to vote for:

• an Animal Charity Team
• an Animal Charity Employee
• an Animal Charity Volunteer
• …or all of the above!

2022 was our best year yet as we helped to rehome 627 animals and provided support for thousands of pet owners across Mid Norfolk and North Suffolk. If one of our team helped you or your furry, finned, feathered or scaly friend this year, we’d be so grateful for your nomination. But hurry, nominations close on 10th January Nominate here Signup to our newsletter here

The celebration of all things science returns this February half term, and events are now on sale. With more than 180 events taking place over eight days, there’s plenty for everybody to enjoy. Norwich Science Festival is back 11–18 February 2023 around the city and beyond – expect intriguing discoveries, inspiring talks, engaging exhibitions, deep dives and debates, cutting-edge research, and lots of hands-on family fun! You can now pick up a brochure from The Forum, Norwich or download a virtual brochure on norwichsciencefestival.co.uk, where you can also book talks, shows and workshops. Every day there’s free hands-on fun and activities for all in ‘The Explorium’ at The Forum, with themed days from bugs, birds and beasts through to health and wellbeing. The Explorium takes over The Forum’s Atrium, as well as outside the building including a heated marquee, kindly sponsored by Vattenfall. The Explorium is open between 10.30am-4pm, with a pre-book Quiet Hour open between 9.30am-10.30am. Plus this year, there’s two mini pop-up festivals, taking the science fun further afield, to Holt and Gorleston-on-Sea. These Science Satellite events are perfect for families, with bookable talks and workshops at East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Gorleston on Monday 13 February and Gresham’s in Holt on Wednesday 15 February. Highlights include Teddy Bear Clinic with Dr Jess French at Gresham’s; Extinct, about dinosaur super-predators, with Prof Ben Garrod, plus lots of fun workshops including stomp rockets, coding and robotics, kitchen science, chemical reactions and more! The brochure was launched at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, with the help of principal Dr Catherine Richards, college staff and students, the Norwich Science Festival team, and sponsor Howes Percival. Claire Mutimer, Norwich Science Festival producer, said: “We are so excited to have our brochures packed with inspiring events and really hope you enjoy planning your trip to the festival, with so many talks, shows and workshops on offer for adults and children. We have really focused on ensuring Norwich Science Festival is affordable – so lots of the events are free or subsidised – just make sure you book them on our website. You can be sure of a very warm welcome at the festival and don’t forget The Explorium is open every day of half term in The Forum and is totally free.” Highlights of the festival for families include the return of BBC Gastronaut Stefan Gates, with a brand-new show Rude Science (18 Feb); and Big and Small (16 Feb) – an interactive game show where you help astronomer Affelia and biochemist Alex settle a very important scientific argument: which is superior – big things like planets, or small things like proteins! Or why not try The biggest science quiz show EVER (12 Feb) with Prof Ben Garrod and Mark Thompson? Grab your friends and family and head along to this fun-packed show packed to the brim with explosive chemical reactions, answers to some of life’s biggest questions, live experiments, audience participation and tonnes of fun science! For adults, there are panels and talks on the science of heartbreak; the menopause; Long Covid; and a masterclass with a Wim Hof Method instructor. Boogie on the Brain (14 Feb) is a quirky evening of psychology, science and dancing where you’ll need your dancing shoes! The Cosmic Shambles Network bring their Nine Lessons (17 Feb) to Norwich Science Festival – a special science cabaret show, hosted by Dr Helen Czerski with special guests including Dr Adam Rutherford, comedian Bec Hill, geoscientist Chris Jackson and music from Soft Lad (from Self Esteem). Expect weird science, quirky facts, lots of laughter and a great night out! Plus, there’s a special headline event with Bonnie Garmus (17 Feb) – her bestselling novel Lessons in Chemistry tells the story of genius chemist Elizabeth Zott and her struggle against sexism in the science world of the 1960s. Norwich Science Festival is presented by The Forum, Norwich, in partnership with many organisations across the region, including University of East Anglia and Norwich Research Park. Sponsors include Vattenfall, Gresham’s, Norwich School, Chantry Place, Pensthorpe, Breakwater IT, Briar Chemicals, Veolia, Chapelfield Veterinary Practice and Howes Percival. To see all Norwich Science Festival events and book tickets, visit www.norwichsciencefestival.co.uk.

Ahead of councillors setting the Norwich City Council budget for 2023-2024 in February 2023, we are running a consultation to get the views of residents and businesses. With just over £100m to deliver a range of services (some which are statutory and some discretionary) and invest in the city, set against a context of inflation and dwindling money from government – it’s more important than ever, we hear from local people on what matters to them. Our survey sets out our plans for making savings and generating income, which you can find at GetTalking.norwich.gov.uk Please give your views by Friday 20 January 2023. Image credits – Chambers Canva Pro

Chantry Place Norwich is one of the sponsors of the Norwich Science Festival 2023, returning 11-18 February, and has lots of free family-friendly events planned during February to celebrate.

Dodo and Dinosaur, a Norfolk-based studio creating designs celebrating the Earth’s Extraordinary Extinct™creatures, is creating a special free Extraordinary Extinct™ Dinosaur Trail for Chantry Place. The self-led dinosaur-themed poster trail around the Centre will enable families to go on a dinosaur hunt around the Centre to discover some fascinating fossil facts to be in with a chance of winning a £100 H&M voucher and goodies from Dodo and Dinosaur. The free trail takes place from 4-18 February 2023 at Chantry Place Norwich and trail maps can be picked up at Langleys in Chantry Place and at The Forum Norwich.

A Museum of Plastic exhibition by Precious Plastic, who are on a mission to reduce plastic waste, will be located at Chantry Place from 11^th to 18^th February on the dining terrace. It will feature a Fantastic Plastic Litter Arcade for families to enjoy, including bottle tops in the style of a 2p machine game and much more. This exhibition explores the environmental and social harms caused by our current dependence on singleuse plastics, and presents possible steps we could take to eradicate them.

Plus, there will also be some fun characters for families to meet on Chantry Square on Saturday 11^th February.

Paul McCarthy, general manager at Chantry Place, is also teaming up with Molly Ajeto, visual merchandiser at H&M for a free talk at Sir Isaac Newton college on Friday 17^th February at midday on ‘Sustainability within modern retail’.

Paul McCarthy, general manager at Chantry Place, said: “Norwich Science Festival is always a fun-filled and educational event for families in Norwich and Norfolk and we worked with them in 2021 when we had a planetarium at the Centre. We are looking forward to being involved in February and helping showcase Norwich as a city of science, innovation and creativity, whilst having lots of fun. We are so excited to see the dinosaur trail which has been created especially for us for the festival and the arcade style games at the Museum of Plastic will be loved by all ages, while highlighting the importance of recycling and the impact that plastic has on our planet.”

All events at Chantry Place are free and do not need to be booked. The full progamme of Norwich Science Festival events goes on sale on 4^th January 2023.

“Norwich Science Festival is so delighted to be working with Chantry Place this February – with our free dinosaur trail and Museum of Plastic exhibition – plus on the first day of the festival, Sat 11th February, we will have some friendly dinosaurs outside the front of Chantry Place. It is going to be a fun-filled February half term with a huge Norwich Science Festival programme of free and good value events every day!”  – Claire Mutimer, Norwich Science Festival Producer.

For more information on Chantry Place, visit www.ChantryPlace.co.uk or follow chantryplacenorwich on social media.

Image credit: Dido and Dinosaur

Thursford Enterprises has won a test case in a dispute with HMRC over whether its Christmas Spectacular was entitled to Theatre Tax Relief (TTR). The Norfolk show is the largest of its kind in Europe and draws thousands of visitors to the region every year. Larking Gowen’s Corporate Tax Specialist Ben Greves was advising Thursford Enterprises and assisting with the dispute. “For a number of years Thursford has made a claim under the Theatre Tax Relief scheme for the costs of producing the Christmas Spectacular. “This is something we had advised them to do after informal discussions with HMRC. However, in 2019 HMRC told them it was launching an enquiry into the company’s TTR claim, which was the start of a long drawn-out and challenging process,” he explained. He said Thursford’s position has been greatly helped by Larking Gowen’s advice to establish robust documentation and a filing position that could be supported. Also, that Thursford had subscribed to the firm’s Tax Enquiry Protection Service (TEPS) which protected them from substantial professional costs in defending their position. When the two parties were unable to reach a negotiated position, HMRC issued a closure notice concluding that the Christmas Spectacular was not a qualifying production for TTR. Thursford appealed against the closure notice and took their case to the First Tier Tribunal, where the judge ruled that the show was in fact a qualifying production for TTR. HMRC decided not to appeal the decision. John Cushing OBE, Producer, Director and CEO of Thursford Enterprises, said TTR was essential to keep productions running. “Before we even open our doors for the first performance, our production costs are in the region of £2m. Without Theatre Tax Relief, we would not be able to sustain our production, which has a cast of over 130 singers, dancers and musicians, not taking into consideration the technical and production teams. “Everything in the show is performed live, and that is why over 100,000 audience members travel each season from every county in the country, as well as, increasingly, from further afield to see our Christmas Spectacular. TTR was passed as a Government Bill to protect and promote live theatre within the United Kingdom; to encourage and support us as a centre of excellence in the arts.” He said that having a TEPS subscription in place had made the decision to go ahead with the financial burden of the appeal more defensible to the organisation’s trustees. “Larking Gowen were with us at every stage of the journey. Following the acceptance of the appeal by HMRC they appointed a Chartered Tax Advisor, Andrew Gotch from The Tax Fellowship, who was absolutely superb and whose expertise and advice certainly helped us win the case.” John stated this year’s Christmas Spectacular was playing to full houses of 1,400 patrons twice a day, “with standing ovations from the very first show.” “With the continued support of TTR, long may our Christmas Spectacular survive and flourish,” he commented. Larking Gowen’s Ben Greves said: “Tax relief is a form of funding for the arts sector, and this was a test case which helped us, and HMRC, determine where the line is drawn.” Find out more about Larking Gowen’s Tax Enquiry Protection Service here. Photo © Thursford Enterprises