Nick

@andyburnham and @JohnHealey_MP , today’s Budget may have offered some breathing space for businesses. But how much breathing space is there for a pub or restaurant that’s already struggling to breathe? I ask you both to think about the thousands of people behind Britain’s independent pubs, restaurants and hotels. People who have invested their life savings, missed precious family occasions and worked themselves to exhaustion trying to keep their businesses alive. Since 2021, the minimum wage has risen by 48%. The employer’s National Insurance bill for one full-time minimum wage employee has risen by 162%, from around £1,300 to £3,400 a year. The basic cost of employing that person has increased by 55%. Food prices have risen by around 40%. Commercial electricity by around 65%. And our customers, struggling with their own household bills, simply cannot keep paying more. You can be busy, loved by your customers and doing everything right, and still lose money. That’s the heartbreaking reality of hospitality today. I recognise that today’s Budget included some help with business rates. But it did not deliver the reduction in hospitality VAT that so many of us have been desperately asking for. And the fundamental problem remains. Behind every business facing closure is someone lying awake at three in the morning, wondering how they’ll pay their staff, their suppliers and the next electricity bill. Someone who will still get up the following morning and greet their customers with a smile. Andy and John, I genuinely believe you understand the importance of our pubs and the communities they serve. But understanding their importance and giving them a realistic chance of survival are two very different things. When these businesses close, we lose jobs, livelihoods and places where generations have celebrated, laughed, cried and made memories. We lose a little of the heart of our communities. We aren’t asking for special treatment. We’re asking for a fair chance to survive, with meaningful action on hospitality VAT and employment costs. Please don’t mistake our determination to keep going for evidence that we’re managing. Because the saddest thing about all this is that people aren’t giving up because they’ve stopped loving what they do. They’re giving up because, however hard they work and however much they care, they simply cannot afford to carry on. And once those doors close for the last time, no future Budget can bring back everything those businesses meant to the people who loved them. 💔 @UKHospKate @BBCRadioWales @WalesPolitics @andyjlennox @Porkyaskew @NailcoteHall @Sacha_Lord @lordwaynebas @Sassan_sir @BBCWalesNews @switherdenMP