The reality is this: Rachel Reeves and her Government have ignored the intelligent arguments, the pleas, the advice of experts and pretty much thrown the hospitality sector to the wolves.
Even the support she thinks she’s offered is offset by revaluations which make the paltry offer made in discounts to business rates multipliers laughable.
Reeves appears to think that she can continue to squeeze the industry dry, without consequence. The hospitality sector, and particularly the pub and bar sector, is a massive contributor to the economic success of the country.
Yet, like the golden goose before it, the Chancellor seems determined to kill it, while spouting nonsense about economic growth. Nothing offered in that budget is geared towards growth. As many have said, you can’t tax your way to growth.
Even the bits where they claim to have helped, they’ve done the bare minimum and while Reeves and her cronies are busy congratulating themselves on delivering “the lowest business rates” ever, the reality is that many pubs will be facing unsustainable increases in those rates, as revaluation bites and values sky rocket.
Scrooge strikes again
To give just 5p discount on the multiplier, when the option to give 20 was on the table is an almost Scrooge like move on the behalf of the Government, appropriate enough given the lateness of this Budget.
Rather than breathing a sigh of relief that rates have been balanced and reduced to give some wriggle room, most operators are now facing significant increases in what they pay. And just to add salt to the wounds, the Chancellor appears to be under the misapprehension that she’s done the industry a favour!
On top of this, the obsession with unnecessarily lifting the minimum wage to dizzying heights, way above inflation, is mind boggling - the Government seems to think that forcing businesses - that have no spare resources anymore - to pay more is going to be good for those on minimum wage.
The reality is the opposite - businesses are going to cut staff and freeze recruitment, driving up unemployment, and the welfare bill, not to mention fuelling inflation as businesses increase prices to combat the increased employment costs.
So those minimum wage earners will be delighted to count the increasing costs of their groceries, as they queue outside the job centres looking for work that no longer exists.
Lost generation
We run the risk of a new generation of workers leaving school to find nothing waiting for them, particularly in a sector which has traditionally been fertile territory.
Let’s face it, no-one had particularly high hopes for the budget going in - the most anyone really hoped for was some sensible reform on business rates.
Sadly the Government thinks they’ve delivered that, while failing to acknowledge the reality of the situation which will see businesses folding like a pack of cards as those costs kick in.
This Budget was a moment in time in which the Chancellor could have pulled a rabbit out of a hat, and while I think many would struggle to forgive for the previous budget, it could have provided a lifeline of hope for an industry that is steadily sinking below the waves and would have been gratefully received.
It’s now down to this industry to do what it does best, adapt, innovate and survive, somehow, and hope that at some point, common sense will prevail and some grown ups might take over the reins of Government.
