With the Autumn Budget looming in late November, the Oxfordshire-based pub operator – along with his brother David and sister Emma plus his parents who founded the business in the ’90s, Collinson has demanded help for the sector that gives so much.
On what is causing the biggest issues for pubs and bars, he stated: “It’s all the stuff that UKHospitality and [The Morning Advertiser] are pushing at the minute so it’s about an unfair tax regime – whether that’s the employer national insurance contributions or just the overarching tax burden on this industry that employs millions of people and is the driver for pretty much every high street and village, town and city in the UK.
“We should be almost incentivised to build these pubs and make these hospitality venues rather than taxed into oblivion for it.
“Whatever colour they are, they need to make it a fairer playing field.”
Rise of younger drinkers
Collinson also believes younger people are coming to the pub as opposed to their slightly older counterparts.
“There is also a bit of me thinking about young people not coming out [to pubs] but I’m also thinking some of those 18 to 19-year-olds are now starting to come out a bit more than their 24-year-old counterparts. We’ve found this anyway,” he explained.
“What was interesting is last year we’d have five 19-year-old lads walk in and they’d all buy three pints each of Guinness and that’s never happened before. I mean that’s just ridiculous.
“I’m hoping this next generation are going to be so bored with their phones and everything else and they won’t be sitting indoors watching Netflix because that’s what my mum does! I hope they’ll think ‘I’m not going to do that’ whereas the 25 to 30-year-old generation still thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread.”
He also said the Government can make the industry more attractive as an employer by looking at national insurance contributions and the national minimum/living wage.
Cut VAT on cask beer
Collinson said: “It can make it more attractive for us to create spaces on high streets and towns and cities in by sorting out the rates situation – I still don’t get why big internet firms can come in and not pay similar costs to what we’re paying.
“It can also cut red tape on minor alterations to buildings. We put a patio in and we needed planning permission so we got that and then it was apparently on a flood plain – that has never flooded – and it cost us £2,000 to get somebody to write some drainage calculations… am I in a parallel universe here?
“Also, I know a VAT reduction on food is an industry ask but even though we need it cut on food for our counterparts in the restaurant/gastropub business, I reckon if they cut VAT on cask beer, which is a product that is ridiculously British – it’s generally almost 100% British made with almost 100% British ingredients and, generally, all of cask beer companies are British owned – so get Jeremy Clarkson behind it so we could save cask beer and take the VAT off it.”
- Keep an eye out for the Sunday Session when Simon Collinson will talk exclusively about sales and taxes to The Morning Advertiser.
