With concerns being aired about ticket prices for brass band events in the UK, it has been reported that the Royal Albert Hall's bid to change its constitution, and with it, the way in which some of its tickets are sold, has failed in its passage as a Private Members Bill through Parliament.

It currently allows 1,276 private members to resell their seats for 'non-exclusive' events. The initial proposal first made in 2022, and backed by the Charities Commission, sought to limit these members from selling their tickets for what critics called "significant profit".

The House of Lords was informed last year that Ed Sheernan tickets worth £200 were offered on a resale site for just under £6,000, and that tickets for the Last Night of the Proms with a face value of £100 were going for over £1,200.

Private sales

Members can currently sell their seats for 'non-exclusive' occasions to either the Hall's Box Office at face value minus 10 per cent, or via a third-party platform at a 'market price'.

This allows the charity which runs the venue to sell tickets through its Box Office whilst other are sold privately. 4BR understands that one such event is likely to be the top section National Championship of Great Britain.

Conflict of interest

Seat-holder members pay an annual contribution of £2,250 and agree to forgo their tickets for events on around 100 days each year. However, the forgoing of tickets is not mandated by the charity's constitution, and a minority of seat-holders have since threatened legal action if the Bill had passed.

19 of the current 24 Royal Albert Hall charity trustees are also private seat holders, leading critics to suggest they had a "conflict of interest".

The trustees were reported as saying the initial Bill was, "unnecessarily restrictive and financially punitive", so the attempt to revive it on this occasion, and with the possibility of legal challenge, saw an amendment with a requirement for trustees only to publish information about the profits made from resold tickets.

As a charity since 1967, the Royal Albert Hall benefits from tax relief and must be seen to act for the public good.

Large sums

However, on Monday, the three-year bid to gain legislative change through Parliament failed, as the amended Bill was voted down by MPs following a debate which highlighted concerns about trustees still being able to sell their seats privately for large sums.

Labour's Dame Emily Thornberry said: "Why should these people have the benefit of being able to sell these seats on the black market, undermining the whole thing?

She said it was an "obvious and manifest conflict of interest" that people who profit from being a seat-holder at the Royal Albert Hall also run the charity, adding: "It's scandalous and should be stopped."

Outrageous profiteering

Even with the amendment, she said it was, "the most outrageous profiteering that has led to this Bill", and that as it stood it was, "simply looking after the interests of a small number of people who are already making a great deal of money out of owning seats in the Royal Albert Hall".

Dame Thornberry added: "They didn't ask for that much in the House of Lords. It's pretty tame, frankly, I think, but it has said that if you are a trustee, then you really should be using the ticket return scheme that the Hall runs, not selling your tickets in backroom deals, while the Hall gets a pittance."

"the most outrageous profiteering that has led to this Bill..."Dame Emily Thornberry

Necessary but not palatable

In voting for the Bill, former Conservative cabinet minister and past Royal Albert Hall trustee Sir John Whittingdale, said it was "necessary" and "beneficial".

However, he did note that the "suggestion of legal challenge", meant that there was now "a legal uncertainty and a risk as to whether or not Hall is able to continue to offer as many tickets as it does to what are called exclusives."

It had he said, resulted in "several options for the Hall, none of which are particularly palatable" — from maintaining the status quo but "face defeat in the courts", to the hall "losing around 40 exclusive lettings in a year, out of perhaps around 150"- resulting in a loss of around £1.8m."

The Bill was defeated by 37 votes to 24.

The Royal Albert Hall recorded a total income of £60.5m in 2024, £41.2m of which came from its operation of the venue.