Hospitality venues call for support in Budget

Richard Wainman, owner of Dick's Smokehouse, said he would "love" to see the rate of VAT lowered

Hospitality businesses have called for industry support in this week's Budget amid continuing struggles with rising costs.

Venue owners in the West Midlands said they would welcome measures, including a cut in VAT, to help offset some of the financial difficulties the sector has faced in recent years.

Richard Wainman, of Dick's Smokehouse in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said he felt like the industry was "being ignored".

"There are a lot of campaigns at the moment calling for the national insurance to be looked at and VAT – I'd love to hear that the VAT was to be lowered," he told BBC Politics Midlands.

Neil Taylor, landlord of The Fox at Shipley pub near Wolverhampton, said the increase in the minimum wage had also put more pressure on businesses.

"Obviously, we want to see the employees being rewarded for their efforts," he continued.

"But it's not just the increase in gross pay. That has a roll-on effect to the increase in employers' national insurance and we have to pass this increase in costs on."

MP Rachel Taylor said increasing wages would help the hospitality industry

Rachel Taylor, Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, said hospitality was "very difficult" and the margins were "very small".

"The only way we're going to improve things in the hospitality sector is if we continue to invest in making sure people's wages are improved and that we improve the cost of living crisis so people can start feeling like they can afford to go out," she added.

Abi Brown, Conservative member of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and Jack Rose, Green councillor on Staffordshire County Council, both said they would support a cut in VAT to help the industry.

"The knock-on for our region would be huge," Brown added.

Electric vehicles

Suggestions of what might be announced in the Budget include a pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicle (EV) owners.

Simon Andrews, from Kidderminster, who drives an EV, said making it more expensive to own one would be "ridiculous".

"The government wanted us to come off petrol and move onto diesel cars," he said. "Now they want us to go onto electric cars - every time we go that way, we seem to get stung."

In response, Taylor said the government needed to make sure the vehicle payments would be used for repairing roads.

"Every time I speak to people, they talk to me about potholes," she said. "I think we have to be careful we're not discouraging people from making that switch over to electric vehicles.

There have been rumours of a pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicle owners

Brown questioned whether the cash raised would go to councils or whether it would be used to "pay for something else, somewhere else".

Rose said it would discourage people from buying EVs, adding: "It's especially going to impact the rural communities who already don't have the infrastructure for electric vehicles.

"If they were going to put in their own infrastructure, they're certainly not going to now, now that the benefits are starting to outweigh the negatives."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to make a statement outlining the Budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

She previously said she would make the "necessary choices" for the economy in a bid to bring down NHS waiting lists, the national debt and the cost of living.