It has long been a beef that British hotels and hospitality businesses face heavier-than-most tax burdens — their larger square footage definitely results in higher business-rate bills, and meals often are among the first expenses to be cut by guests, who are still travelling and staying in hotels but actively managing their budgets when they do so.
UKHospitality and others have long campaigned to have the government recognize the contributions of our industry to employment, to the circulation of money and to the health of our high streets, but the very public face of hotels, bars and restaurants — let’s face it, they are more noticed and enjoyable than are nail salons, charity stores and phone-repair shops, which to my eye constitute nearly the entire shopping choice in one’s town — often goes against us.
Everyone loves to travel, sip a pint, eat a burger, sleep under Egyptian sheets goes the thinking, so evidently this industry is doing well.
United Kingdom hotels and hospitality are subject to the say 20% rate of value-added/sales tax as many other industries, but they pay that 20% against direct competition from hotels in, say, Paris (France — VAT rate: 10%); Brussels (Belgium — VAT rate, recently increased from 6% to 12%); Madrid (Spain — VAT rate: 10%), and Budapest (Hungary — VAT rate: 5%), to give four examples.
There are some examples with higher rates than the U.K., notably Amsterdam, which has a VAT that recently increased from 9% to 21%.
Hoteliers are moaning there, but a moratorium on new hotels means that their average daily rate remains robust, despite any dip in occupancy.
In the U.K., if a petition on any subject gains more than 10,000 signatories, it warrants a written response from government; if the petition gains more than 100,000 signatories, a government committee will consider it for discussion in Parliament.
The latest initiative from the industry — including UKHospitality, British Beer & Pub Association, British Institute of Innkeeping and CODE Hospitality — is to seek one million signatures, although I am not sure what that gets.
Spearheading the “VATsTheProblem” campaign to have U.K. VAT for the sector reduced to 10% is Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, whose restaurants include Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at the 279-room Corinthia London. It is being launched at the industry first, and then on July 1 it will be launched at consumers, with hotels and hospitality businesses being asked to ask their guests, diners and clients.
As part of the campaign, Kerridge has written “our sector is under huge pressure. We know it. We live and breathe it every day. We know that the key to unleashing hospitality’s potential to grow and thrive into the future comes through a VAT cut.”
“Let’s all get behind the campaign, make our voices heard and bang the drum for hospitality,” he added.
The government did reduce VAT in the U.K. to 5%, but only on so-called “kid’s meals,” which has led to some restaurants offing “grown-up kid’s meals,” the loophole being that all that is needed is to market a meal to children, although you can sell one to anyone.
I rather think alcohol cannot be served at the same time, but once one has paid one’s bill, I am sure a nightcap is legal.
Time and time again I have written on industry initiatives to have VAT rates slashed to levels competitive with those paid by its friends in mainland Europe, but the only meaningful change in the U.K. came with temporary cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s hope this time the industry, backed up by guests, hears loud and clear its message and gets a clearer idea as to the pressures hoteliers, restauranteurs and publicans are under.
Presumably they come with Allen keys?
A mildly humorous missive from Swedish furniture store IKEA that it, along with the Swedish Meteorological & Hydrological Institute, have studied “historical sunlight” and pinpointed the spot in Sweden most likely to have the most sunshine in any year.
Sunshine is important in Sweden and the other Scandinavian and Nordic countries.
On the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, the exact spot, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet — I had a car crash and a period of hospitalization in Eskilstuna, Sweden, in the early 1990s, and with little to do I started learning Swedish, although I am far from fluent — being just southwest of Burgsvik.
For some reason, IKEA felt there is a need to commemorate the exact spot with two permanent IKEA chairs made of granite, not plastic. I am told there is the possibility of interviewing the presumably proud farmer on whose land is the now “Sweden’s sunniest square metre.”
It reminds me of another odd statue I have been to.
This one is in the Polish town of Słubice, on the eastern shore of the River Oder opposite the town of Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany.
In its tiny Plac Frankfurti square is the world’s only statue commemorating Wikipedia.
The statue consists of four nude figures holding aloft a globe, and it is dedicated to the all the unknown editors who have edited the website’s pages.
Why not?
It was not sunny when I visited.
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