Tom Kerridge calls on Rachel Reeves to cut VAT for hospitality industry

Chef Tom Kerridge has called on new Chancellor Rachel Reeves to cut VAT for the hospitality industry and to facilitate freedom of movement that allows workers to come to the UK.

Kerridge, who owns The Hand and Flowers in Buckinghamshire, the first pub with two Michelin stars, said it is currently “very, very difficult” to run a pub because of escalating costs and the pressures are “equal if not worse” to during the Covid pandemic.

The TV star runs an annual festival to celebrate pubs – Pub In The Park – and told the PA news agency: “We tried speaking as an industry to the last government and it fell on deaf ears and we’ll try very hard this time to keep speaking to the new Labour Government, and will put continued pressure on a number of things, (such as) work visas for hospitality and how people come in.

“Freedom of movement of people is something that needs to be addressed.

“But I think the biggest thing that the industry needs is a relief on VAT, and that would give a huge pressure release that sits within so many different hospitality businesses – from small coffee shops, and popcorn sellers at cinemas, all the way through to seasonal hotels and to big out of town operational hospitality centres.

“The way that most businesses were able to operate when we came out of the Covid crisis was with that reduction in VAT for businesses to get back on their feet.

“But right now those pressures are equal, if not worse, and what they need is for those release of that burden and weight.”

Kerridge said a cut in VAT would help address issues such as staff skills, staff shortages and apprenticeship schemes, as well as with training and retraining.

Kerridge said “everything” is challenging about running a pub these days, adding: “It’s the cost of everything that comes into everything in hospitality, and businesses and pubs. With the price of a pint of beer there is very, very little profit in it, even in the centre of London where pints of beer are £8, there is still little profit.

“Then taxation points, VAT, food inflation, rental rates, staff wages and costs. And there isn’t a single place to hide, it’s every single thing that comes into the business, whether it’s cleaning products, whether it’s refuse collection, whether it’s utility bills.

“If you see a pub that is busy on a Friday and a Saturday night, and Sunday lunch, they need to operate a seven day a week business and they are very, very difficult to run an operate.

“It is very, very difficult for places to generate and make money and survive at the minute.”

Kerridge’s annual festival Pub In The Park, which takes place at four locations over the summer, aims to be “a celebration of pubs” and features live music and pop-up restaurants.

It has already been held in Marlow, Buckinghamshire and Chiswick, London, and will soon visit Surrey and Hertfordshire.

He said: “We’ve been doing it for a number of years now, and we were trying to just build what is essentially the best pub beer garden in the world.

“So what are the best things you could do with food? And when you think of pubs you think of music.

“It’s family friendly, and it has that community vibe and feel like a local pub, but also brilliant restaurants and chefs that turn up and do cookery demonstrations and cook things on fire, with fantastic music right in the middle of communities. It sums up what pubs are about.”

He added: “The main point when we set up Pub In The Park was that the people who take part in it have fun, that the chefs that are cooking are having a great time.

“Because if they’re having a great time that flows out into the park and into the field, and to the people that come to enjoy themselves as part of that festival.”

Pub In The Park comes to Priory Park in Reigate, Surrey from July 12 to 14, when the main stage will host performances from artists including Sam Ryder, Mel C and McFly.

The festival will also take place in Verulamium Park in St Albans, Hertfordshire from September 6 to 8, with performances from Tinie Tempah, Olly Murs and Paloma Faith.