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Speaking at the UKHospitality Summer Conference this week, chair Kate Nicholls said the health of hospitality was important to voters when considering who to vote for and with better policies hospitality can deliver to the economy across a range of measures.
She highlighted the scale of employment the sector offers: “The people in this room are responsible for millions of jobs, you’ve given 16 year olds their first taste of work, taught them vital skills, that will stay to them for life.”
Let-down generation
But she said that was at risk: “Our young people at the moment are a generation that is being let down and it’s a social and moral imperative for us to be able to provide them with the opportunities to work. It’s one of the most devastating things that I have to deal with, on a weekly basis is to be able to say that we can no longer provide those opportunities because of the tax burden we’re facing.”
She said the opportunities the sector provides in employment are second to none on a range of measures, from flexibility to first career steps. “It’s why it hurts so much to see the damage being done to employment in our sector.
“Rising business costs have a devastating impact. We warned after the Budget in October 2024 that job losses were the inevitable consequence of Government policies. It is a direct cause and effect.”
Support needed
Nicholls added: “We’ve now had two successive Budgets. And as a result, we have seen 120,000 fewer jobs in hospitality two-thirds of our businesses saying they cannot afford to employ people. They are cutting staff hours and cutting staff jobs.
“I take no pleasure in being proved, right, but it is important that politicians start to listen to us. Hospitality was the canary in the coal mine then, and it remains a sector that will sound the first warning bells that things that are going wrong.
“But it is also the quickest to pick up and return to positive growth and opportunity, and solve the youth unemployment crisis. If the Government gives us the support that we so desperately need our sector has always had the ability to rapidly drive economic growth.”