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Caterer, Licensee & Hotelier
Editor's Viewpoint
January 2020
Welcome to the January 2020 issue of CLH News. And a Happy New Year to you all!!!!! “Do in 2020 what you did in 2019- Expect the same results” 2019 was a difficult year for the hospitality and ontrade sector in so many ways. While it is easy to blame Brexit, my honest opinion is that the utter mess we made following our decision to leave literalEDITOR ly “sucked the confidence” out of the economy. To add to that, and I have my own personal reasons as to why, our then Chancellor Philip Hammond decided to rack up business rates at a time when all businesses were struggling. The retail sector has been devastated, and as you will see in our front page, one of the oldest pubs in England announced that it is closing for several days a week until March due to the excessive burden of rates. Business rates have had such a negative impact on the sector the biggest surprise is that more businesses haven’t closed down. The Government has promised support and announced in the Queen’s Speech that it will increase the retail discount on rates by a third to 50%, at a cost of £320 million. Resulting in 9 out of 10 independent firms expected to qualify for the relief, which is eligible to retailers with a rateable value below £51,000 – giving them a saving of up to £12,500 in total. There are other issues that urgently need addressing. Alcohol taxes in particular. Duty on alcohol UK is eye-watering. Taxation in the UK currently accounts for almost £3 in every £4 of the price of a bottle of whisky with tax on a bottle of spirits is 28.7p per unit, compared to a rate of 24.8p on wine, 19.1p on beer and 6.7p on cider. To put some perspective on that, the UK has one of the highest Beer Duty (tax) rates in Europe and is three times the EU average. The government collects £3.5 billion every year in Beer Duty, as well as almost £10 billion in other taxes on pubs and brewers. Today one in every three pounds spent in pubs goes to the taxman. Added to that are the rates of VAT on hotel accommodation in Europe compared to the UK. Europe was quick to realise that reducing VAT on overnight accommodation stimulates spending in the sector and reduced their VAT rates accordingly. We are one of only three countries in Europe that have not cut tourism VAT. While ours remains stagnant 20% Belgium is 6%, Germany 7%, Ireland 9%, France and Spain 10%, and Sweden 12%. Most countries average less than half what we charge! It is blatantly obvious the sector is overtaxed, and has so much potential if the playing field were levelled. We are leaving Europe, the decision has been made. The debate and argument is over, and at the time of writing this there are 13 days eight hours and 47 minutes until we leave. We call on the Prime Minister to be bold and make some huge and positive changes to the hospitality, licensed and tourist industry, and he can start not by freezing duty on alcohol in the on trade but by reducing it! On a side note, are now at the beginning of exhibition season and CLH News will be exhibiting at the beginning of February at the Source show in Exeter (see feature this issue, we are also at Expo West tradeshow in Cornwall March 3-5 of March, and also at HCR show at Excel in London at the same time, if you are attending the shows please do stop by our stand we always welcome industry input.
Peter Adams
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EDITOR Peter Adams
SALES EXECUTIVES David Bartlett Guy Stephenson
PRODUCTION & DESIGN Matthew Noades
PRODUCTION & WEB ADMIN Shelly Roche Published by