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The star has given the full amount of his £25k Mercury Prize prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's independent music venues.

Fender was given the award on mid-October as his third album People Watching was chosen as the top album of the last 12 months.

The musician has opted to give the cash to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the vital role grassroots venues played in his beginning days.

"As an artist couldn't be pursuing this success if it wasn't for all the performances I played around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Sam Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are in difficulty."

From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these venues have shut down – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

In the last year, top acts like Pulp, the group Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.

He also joined in, raising more than £100,000 on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight small stages across the UK.

These funds helped locations that were confronting potential shutdown due to issues caused by water damage, blazes and personal losses, as well as permit problems, conflicts and sound issues.

Other venues received funding support in upgrading facilities and sound and lighting systems that positively impacted performers and fans.

"The idea that money from concerts in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has said.

He is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to worthy causes.

When Pulp received the award in the year 1996 for their record the album, frontman Jarvis Cocker declared that the group would donate their cash to the charity War Child.

During 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite shared her bounty between a few good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"I also contributed a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," the artist told the media.

Previously, the band contributed their winnings to the local youth club that developed their act, alongside other local music groups.

Additionally the 1994 recipients M People gave their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was found to have the disease.

"Winning was ample," said vocalist the singer. "The money was the bonus but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected somebody else's life."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had saved two local spots in south-east England, by placing them under public stewardship.

The first in that area and the second in that location were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is backed by the arts council and music fans who purchase "ownership units" in the venues.