The UK hospitality group is growing the demand for permanent VAT reductions

Hospitals in the UK have increased their interest in lowering taxes and business prices after a 40 percent drop in prices during the busy holiday season, which many businesses need to see in the cold winter months.

Sales figures to be published Thursday by UKHospitality and industry tracker CGA show that restaurants, pubs and bars have recorded a reduction of £ 3bn in December compared to the same month 2019.

Sales on Christmas Day fell by 60 percent compared to 2019, while New Year’s sales, one of the most profitable days on the nightclub calendar in particular, dropped by 27%.

The owners of the restaurants and bars were in the banks for a merry Christmas to compensate for the losses incurred during the banned period since March 2020. Early December differences resulted in increased trade and expansion. ban of Christmas events.

UKHospitality described all the figures as “destructive” and said the launch of Omicron meant that businesses had lost the opportunity to rebuild “significant amounts of money… Delay recovery and leave more businesses to appear in the winter months”.

Kate Nicholls, executive director of UKHospitality, said the government should support the sector as a matter of urgency and “make it more secure” by announcing “12.5% ​​increase in VAT and tourism interest rates and lowering tariffs… Allowing businesses to recover”.

Workers in the region have supported the agency’s call to reduce the VAT that was levied on hospitality businesses at the beginning of the epidemic and is expected to return by 20 percent in April.

UKHospitality estimates that long-term reductions in VAT could cost the Treasury £ 213m a year.

Martin Williams, head of the Gaucho restaurant group, said “the 12.5% ​​VAT risk must be permanent for our sector to survive”. Live, a business development agency, says it wants to see taxes drop by 5 percent.

Workers have also helped reduce VAT, Seema Malhotra, the shadow minister for business and consumer, warned in parliament Tuesday that businesses faced a “slope” in late March as taxes and businesses return to the plague before the strike.

Business growth was halted by Treasury in October until April 2023 and cut off small businesses to £ 110,000. UKHospitality wants the cap to be increased to £ 2m.

Rahul Sharma, director of The Regency Club, a restaurant in north London, said that every day in December the business was suspended from 30 to 40, about half of that amount.

“It was like a proxy block because people think it’s wise not to go out if you don’t have to, which makes sense but it leaves the business shut down,” he said.

Poor sales continued in 2022 with total sales for January down 30 percent compared to 2019, according to S4Labour, hospitality experts.