Southend’s amusements and hospitality leaders met with Bayo Alaba MP last month as part of UKHospitality’s #TaxedOut campaign, discussing the £3.4bn impact of the Chancellor’s budgetary measures and the ongoing risk of “destabilising businesses and damaging morale.”
Amusements and hospitality operators from across Southend gathered in Rossi’s Ice Cream Parlour last month in order to discuss the ongoing impact of the Budget on the sector with the MP for Southend East and Rochford, Bayo Alaba.
Figures such as Adventure Island owner Philip Miller and James Sinclair from Partyman Group met as part of UKHospitality’s #TaxedOut campaign, which aims to highlight the £3.4bn of additional costs the industry now faces.
“Our sector is being squeezed from every direction,” said Miller. “Successive wage hikes, higher employment costs and reduced business rate relief are forcing us to cut hours and, in some cases, jobs. The pace of national minimum wage increases risks destabilising businesses and damaging morale.”
“Continually increasing taxes and wages simply fuels inflation. If businesses are forced to put up prices, customers’ spending power goes down, demand falls, and the domestic market becomes less affordable. That’s how the economy ends up shrinking, not growing.”
Trade body UKHospitality calculates that the sector has been forced to find an additional £1bn for Employer NICs and £1.9bn for increases to the minimum wage since April, while business rates relief was cut from 70 percent to 40 percent.
Speaking on behalf of UKHospitality at Rossi’s, public affairs and policy executive Ruby Sampson said: “Our recent survey of hospitality businesses showed that: one third are now operating at a loss, 76 percent have had to increase prices, 63 percent have reduced the hours available to staff.”
An estimated 84,000 jobs have been lost across the entire UK industry in the wake of the Budget, with the Southend operators highlighting that in the city alone, hospitality and tourism supports 6,395 jobs across 344 venues, and contributes £155m annually to the local economy.
“With hospitality contributing £93bn to the UK economy, generating £54bn in tax and employing 3.5 million people nationwide, leaders warn that the Government’s current approach risks shrinking the very sector that creates jobs, skills and regeneration in communities like Southend,” reported the Echo.
“[UKHospitality] wants meaningful relief delivered for hospitality businesses, particularly SMEs, extensions of exemptions to cover young people and those moving from welfare into work, and a cut in VAT on hospitality to stimulate growth and investment.”
A shrinking sector
Philip Miller said……. “Continually increasing taxes and wages simply fuels inflation. If businesses are forced to put up prices, customers’ spending power goes down, demand falls, and the domestic market becomes less affordable…
