Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Wednesday 12 November, Cooper, who is also MP for St Albans, urged the Government to introduce the tax cut at the upcoming autumn Budget.
During the televised interview, Cooper said: “If you look around your high street, many people will be able to see, in every corner of the UK, hospitality businesses are getting absolutely hammered.
“They have to have a physical property, they have to have staff and the Government have put up business rates bills on the property and they’ve had the jobs tax.”
Cooper also highlighted that hospitality businesses often give young people their first job.
Bleak period
She continued: “Many of these businesses simply can’t survive anymore, and they’re looking at a very bleak period from now until Christmas and again that dead zone from January to March as well.
“We need to have a stimulus for our economy, we need to get growth in local economies and we need to save our high streets, which hospitality is such an important part of.
“This is why we’re saying to Government ‘make this 5% cut to VAT’, give consumers a signal they’ve got permission to go out and spend the money that some of them do have and let’s save high streets right across Britain.
“This is a measure the Government could take and it would have an immediate effect to the economy.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 later on Wednesday, Cooper also encouraged the Government to tax social media giants, namely Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, more instead of asking hospitality businesses that are “hanging on by a thread”.
It follows calls from leaders across the sector for the Government to implement VAT reductions and business rates reformation at the fiscal address as well as reverse the hikes to National Insurance contributions and wages.
Speaking at an industry dinner last week, UKHospitality (UKH) chair Kate Nicholls had strong words for the Chancellor and Government: “If you don’t back hospitality in the Budget and you crucify us again, as they did in the last Budget, then you’re going to see further blood on the high street.
Unfair tax burden
“What we’re seeing at the moment is two site closures a day, in first nine months of the year.”
Meanwhile, earlier this week, data from the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) showed 35% of pubs faced closure without intervention from the Government following April’s tax rises and continued inflationary pressures.
In addition, rising costs have forced 74% of operators to cut staff hours and 70% to reduce headcount, with licensees working unsustainable hours to keep businesses afloat, the figures indicated.
BII CEO Steve Alton said: “Since the Covid pandemic, the Government has recognised the huge value of our pubs, with the Prime Minister recently stating that ‘when our locals do well, our economy does too.’
“This recognition must now be matched with urgent action at the Budget to drive local economic growth by reducing the unfair tax burden.”
