Here at Hot Dinners, we've been writing about restaurants in London for nearly 20 years now. We started during a financial crisis and lasted through lockdown, but we've never seen the rate of restaurant closures like it is at the moment. Our closures guide only shows a fraction of the places shuttering over the past few years or so.
There's no doubting that the UK's hospitality industry is suffering a crisis of costs at the moment. That's why the Hot Dinners team is 100% backing the new campaign VAT's The Problem that's being headed up by chef Tom Kerridge.
Why does it matter, you might ask? Although we hope as Hot Dinners readers, that wouldn't be your first question... Well, unlike Rachel Reeves' entrepreneurship adviser, Alexandra Depledge, we don't agree that the country "doesn't need more restaurants". We love seeing, supporting and eating at new openings and enjoying the creativity which this city's chefs and restaurateurs come up with. But it runs deeper than that. Hospitality is a brilliant industry for youth employment, which right now is a horrendous 16.2%. It's also a key contributor to economic growth.
So what's the answer? The campaign hopes to persuade the government to cut hospitality VAT to 10%. That would bring it more in line with the rest of Europe. In France, Spain and Italy, it's 10%. In Germany, it's just 7% and in July, it's coming down to 9% in Ireland. That single measure would help the industry cope with the other costs it faces of food inflation, huge business rates and employment costs. That'll help support pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels, bars, nightclubs and festivals.
"Three hospitality businesses per day are closing," says Kerridge. "We need them to stay open, we need growth, we need to bring youth unemployment down and we need to secure the future of the most exciting sector that we have."
We couldn't agree more, and we hope you'll join us and sign the petition here.
More about VAT's The Problem
Find out more: Visit their website
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