The soaring cost of housing in London is affecting the recruitment of backstage and technical theatre staff.
The Theatre Management Association has expressed concern at the effect the very high cost of housing in London is having on recruitment of technical, backstage and box office staff in the West End.
The essential problem is that theatre, other than in the upper echelons of the acting profession and of the production and administration side, is not well paid. The cost of housing — whether rented or bought — in London is, by contrast, extremely expensive. A result has been a developing trend of difficulty in recruitment because although people have traditionally worked in theatre more for love than for money, there is a basic bottom line at which they simply cannot afford to live in the capital.
One solution is for theatre owners to buy residential accomodations as an investment and letting out the flats, houses or whatever at affordable short-term rents. This is what university colleges and schools in the private sector have done for centuries and may offer a more affordable and indeed profitable alternative to raising salaries.
— by Theatrenow