Attractions executive Rory Holburn got his start in the trade at 16 washing dishes. But under Labour’s new “pro-growth” Budget, he says hiring fresh school-leavers into their first hospitality job will be nigh-on-impossible.
Bournemouth Pier operator Rory Holburn has spoken out as to what he fears will be the “dramatic” changes to the UK’s attractions industry once new fiscal policy goes into effect next month.
Speaking to GB News last week, Holburn said that seaside attractions generated vital employment opportunities to local youths, but the proposed raising of the minimum wage would make future hiring of younger, low-skilled employees prohibitively expensive.
“My first job was clearing glasses and washing dishes as a 16-year old, [and] we used to employ a lot of that young age and bring them through to junior managers and supervisors,” he said. “But they’re going to cost us an absolute fortune now.”
“Not just with the minimum wage going up, but the National Insurance level coming down to £5,000 will hit our business dramatically,” he added.
Whilst acknowledging the specific tribulations faced by seaside towns and piers in particular, Holburn echoed the sentiments of UKHospitality chief Kate Nicholls in claiming that the wider hospitality sector as whole was now exposed to an era of unprecedented difficulty.
“It’s going to be a challenge for the whole hospitality industry,” he remarked. “The uncertainty I think makes it very difficult for people to plan what to do.”
Responding to a GB News request for comment, a Treasury spokesperson effectively ignored the question, opting instead to trot out well versed spin saying that October had seen its office “deliver a once in a parliament Budget to get growth back into the UK economy after over a decade of stagnation.”
Well, how’s that working for you?
The tone of the response was laughably poor: but the timing, that was perfect.
Just this week, the Office for National Statistics announced that January saw the UK’s GDP dip marginally month-on-month.
If that’s growth by the new government’s standards, many in the hospitality sector are saying they can stuff it.
Hospitality in crisis: the incoming rates “tsunami”
Holburn is not alone in sounding the alarm on behalf of hospitality business facing a plethora of soaring costs. His interview with GB News coincided with new analysis from market research firm Ryan estimating up to £1bn in additional rates payments made by UK leisure and hospitality business this year, in line with the government’s plans to reduce rates relief schemes from 70 per cent to 40 per cent.
The company’s property tax wonk Alex Probyn said the revised rates came “on top of a tsunami of other rising costs” faced by leisure and hospitality stakeholders, whom he said were set to face a “complex and challenging environment” in the year ahead.
