Hospitality bosses join Tories in opposition to Labour government
Hospitality bosses have joined the Conservatives in condemning the Labour government for introducing higher taxes on businesses, rolling out red tape on employment and excluding the sector from growth strategies.
Managers at pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK have warned that the government’s taxes and regulations risk devastating the important sector.
Now the Conservatives are set to call on the government to take hospitality into account in its political agenda, with a motion set to be put before parliament with a number of demands.
Tory frontbenchers will call on the government to publish a dedicated growth strategy for the hospitality sector and open consultations with bosses before raising the national minimum wage.
Opposition MPs are also set to push for amendments to Labour’s flagship Employment Rights Bill, which is still passing through parliament, to protect flexible working practices as well as new “support measures” to prevent the further decline of the hospitality sector, which employs some 3.5m people.
Labour finds opposition in industry
Hospitality bosses have backed the Conservatives as industry groups said it was “vital” that the government changed courses, with bosses raising the alarm on 84,000 job losses in the first year of Labour.
UKHospitality and the British Beer and Pubs Association criticised a cut in business rates reliefs and the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions (NCIS) after the salary threshold was lowered to £5,000.
Measures in the government’s workers’ rights package could also add costs to businesses as they may become “liable for the behaviour” of customers and others, according to industry groups.
Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: “More than half of all job losses since October occurring in hospitality is further evidence that our sector has been by far the hardest hit by the government’s regressive tax increases.
“At a time when the country needs jobs, the government should be encouraging hospitality to grow and create jobs, not tax them out of existence.”
Emma McClarkin, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pubs Association, said higher taxes and further regulation was the reason for the closure of about 200 pubs in the first half of the year.
“Meaningful business rates reform, a cut in beer duty, mitigating eye-watering regulatory burdens, and a review of extended producer responsibility costs are key to unlocking the sector’s investment and growth, keep people in jobs, and would mean pubs stay as the heart and soul of the community.”
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said Labour’s policies were driving industry “to the wall”.
“The Conservatives will not stand by while Labour punishes hospitality. We will fight for a proper strategy to support the sector and back the makers who are the foundations of our economy.”