Jane Pendlebury, the CEO of HOSPA, the Hospitality Professionals Association, has responded to the Budget details today.
She said, “The news of the furlough extension is a huge help for hospitality and very welcome, as is the business rates holiday and the restart grants. Reopening is an expensive business and with revenues so thinly stretched, this is very much needed – and will give many the hope to carry on.
'The industry was hugely dismayed by the news that reopening for hotels had been pushed back until May. With unavoidable overheads adding up, any delay greatly increases the risks of businesses folding – so grants to help with this will prove invaluable.
'However, the £18,000 figure quoted by the Chancellor, whilst ample for smaller businesses, isn’t enough for bigger hospitality businesses, hotels and hotel groups – the largest employers, with the largest overheads.
'We were also hoping for an extension of the 5% VAT reduction for the next 12 months as opposed to 6. However, given the scale of borrowing, even this extension is welcomed so we thank the Chancellor for that.'
Pendlebury went on, A key thing, as an industry, we were hoping for was an extension of furlough until June – helping us to get beyond May’s reopening date. A definitive end date to aim for was, for many, a cause for optimism and enough to suggest that we’re almost there, with the finish line in sight.
'But, whilst satisfying hospitality’s need, the September extension of furlough does set some alarm bells ringing. Does it mean that further restrictive measures will be hanging over us? Or is it simply in anticipation of a future spending review?'
Pendlebury continued, 'Our initial optimism at being able to reopen was based on a successful vaccine rollout being married with sensible levels of social distancing and other precautions, enabling trade to continue with further lockdowns effectively behind us.
'So many hospitality businesses, limping through, will need to think twice about the realities of doing so if they have a sword of Damocles over their heads in the form of additional lockdowns. If this is set to be high in future Government thinking, we would very much welcome clarification on this to help paint a clearer, more definitive picture.'
Pendlebury concluded, 'Hospitality has been – necessarily – supported until now, but there really only is so much more the industry can take. So whilst, as ever, we’re grateful for the latest measures we do need reassurance that 2021 will be a very different prospect from 2020.”