UK Hospitality: I represent bars and restaurants across the UK - and they’re being taken for granted"
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00:00UK Hospitality is the national trade body for hospitality businesses and employers,
00:05which means it is the voice and face behind promoting the hospitality industry
00:09as a great place to grow, work and invest. As part of National World's Food and Drink Month,
00:14we spoke to the Chief Executive of Sponsors UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, to find out the support
00:19bars and restaurants need and how the public can help. So why do you think that work like this is
00:25so important and why is it important to champion local businesses in particular?
00:32Well, I think this kind of work is really important because it brings to life the sector
00:38as a whole. Lots of people, we touch their daily lives, they will be our customers,
00:43but often we're in the background, we're taken for granted and particularly there's a lack of
00:48understanding and awareness of the supply chain behind the food and drink that we eat in our
00:53local restaurants, community pubs, neighbourhood cafes. And really important in the hospitality
00:59sector because unlike most sectors, we're an industry of small businesses and our supply
01:04chain is also small businesses. So together we're big business, we're 140 billion pound turnover,
01:10we're bigger than automotive, aerospace and pharmaceuticals put together, we've got 3.5
01:14million people working in it. But it's an industry that's made up of 70 to 80% of small businesses
01:20and so it doesn't tend to get that cut through and that sort of cognizance that lots of people
01:25have. So a month like this brings everybody together, allows us to celebrate and promote
01:31and champion the great things that are going on out there. Although it's all great to
01:36celebrate and things like that, it is important to know what challenges the UK hospitality industry
01:42are facing currently and kind of what can be done as consumers to help them.
01:48Absolutely. I think the hospitality has faced a perfect storm coming out of Covid, going straight
01:54into the energy and food price inflation pressures coming through from the war in Ukraine,
01:59the cost of doing business crisis, cost of living crisis. This is a sector that is the foundation
02:05of many of our communities, high streets and provide jobs for lots of people across the
02:11country. But it's an industry that's got very unique challenges as a result of all of those
02:17pressures that are coming to being brought to bear. And we can see in the number of closures
02:22and in the number of boarded up restaurants, pubs up and down the countryside that this is an
02:28industry that still is very fragile. So yes, this is also an opportunity to talk about what happens
02:34when those businesses go bust, to raise awareness of the fact that they are fragile, they need our
02:39support and also to articulate the support that is needed at a central government level if we are
02:45going to have a thriving hospitality sector. What do you think as a whole needs to be done
02:50to support businesses and to address those challenges? Well, the single most important
02:56thing that we need at the moment is a reform of the business rate system so that we can get a
03:01rebalancing. Our businesses are on high streets, they're town centres, they're in their communities,
03:06they are property intensive and they are paying a disproportionate level of tax.
03:10They generate 5% of GDP but they're paying 15% of all business rates. So we need that
03:16rebalanced, reduce their costs, that will allow them to make those investments in their places
03:22and in their people and it will give them the breathing space to be able to stand a fighting
03:27chance of survival and growth. And finally, what does the hospitality bring to our towns and cities?
03:35And you've kind of answered it slightly but just to kind of conclude, you know, why is
03:41the hospitality so important? Well, the hospitality sector brings light and life to our town centres,
03:46city centres, high streets and local communities. We saw what happened when hospitality was closed,
03:52we had a very graphic demonstration of what happens when you lose hospitality. People really
03:57missed it. It's a safe space to socialise, it's a place where they meet family and friends and
04:02they all come together. And we also saw the economic impact that it had when you closed
04:07hospitality down, the economy went into reverse. When hospitality is firing on all cylinders,
04:12the economy grows, we generate tax and revenue to fund vital public services. So it's a real
04:17virtuous circle. It's big and important in its own right and it creates and sustains jobs and
04:24investment in high streets across the community but it's also the foundation on which the rest
04:29of the economy rests and relies to be able to have that strong economic growth.