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Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his £25k Mercury Prize cash to the MVT, which operates to save the UK's independent concert spaces.

He was awarded the award on mid-October as his latest record the album was declared the best record of the past year.

He has opted to donate the funds to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part grassroots venues had in his beginning days.

"As an artist would not have achieved this success if it wasn't for all the gigs I did around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," said the artist. "These locations are legendary, but they are facing challenges."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have ceased operations – roughly 16% of the entire UK sector.

Recently, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits independent venues.

He also joined in, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight grassroots venues across the UK.

These funds supported locations that were dealing with potential shutdown due to difficulties stemming from floods, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.

Other venues were granted funding support in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.

"The notion that money from performances in big venues backs the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has stated.

The musician is among several artists to donate his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.

When they earned the trophy in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, lead singer Jarvis Cocker stated that the band would contribute their cash to the charity War Child.

During 2002, artist she divided her award across multiple organizations, including the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.

"I also gave a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to the media.

In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their funds to the community center that nurtured their group, as well as other local music groups.

And winners that year the group donated their winnings to a charity for MS after a close contact was found to have the illness.

"Receiving the award was sufficient," remarked vocalist Small. "The money was the bonus but we didn't require the extra, because we had the cake. So our success touched another person's life."

Recently, the MVT shared it had saved a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by placing them under local control.

The Joiners in that area and the other in the city were purchased under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is supported by Arts Council England and enthusiasts who acquire "ownership units" in the venues.