ALMOST 80 per cent of cash-starved pubs and restaurants have put up prices since last year’s Budget tax-raid on businesses, figures have revealed.
More than half of hospitality firms also axed jobs to help finances, with three-quarters operating at or below 85 per cent of required capacity.
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Industry bosses warned Britain’s pubs and restaurants are being squeezed by “unsustainable” taxes, and urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to relax taxation on the sector in the upcoming Budget.
The survey of members of the British Institute of Innkeeping, the British Beer & Pub Association, UKHospitality and Hospitality Ulster found 79 per cent of operators have increased prices as a direct result of rises to costs in April.
Meanwhile, 73 per cent have less than six months of cash reserves, with one in five having none at all.
It comes after Ms Reeves raised employers’ National Insurance contributions, as well as the national minimum wage, in the last Budget.
Many pubs were also hit by changes to discounts on business rates.
In a joint statement, the trade bodies said tax hikes were forcing businesses “to make impossible decisions to cut jobs, put up prices, reduce opening hours and limit the support they want to give their communities”.
PENSION ‘GAP’
RETIRED women lose the equivalent of four months of their pensions each year to the gender pay gap, analysis has revealed.
They are shortchanged by £7,600 a year, the TUC reports, while the Prospect union says they get 36.5 per cent less than men.
The Government has revived the Pension Commission to look into the causes.
TUC boss Paul Nowak said: “We must make sure these inequalities are addressed.”
AIR PAY STRIKE
WORKERS at aircraft maker Airbus will stage a series of strikes over pay.
About 3,000 Unite members will walk out for ten days next month.
The union warned the strikes would hit production of wings for Airbus’s commercial and military aircraft.
Its members are based in Broughton, North Wales, and Filton, near Bristol.
General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Workers deserve a fair deal.”
IT’S A REALLY TOP SHOP
TOPSHOP has picked a luxury department store for its High Street return.
Liberty in London’s West End will stock its AW25 collection from next Thursday.
Shoppers have been unable to buy the brand in-person since 2020, when all Topshop stores were shuttered as its owner went bust.
Topshop teased its return online with a short video featuring the building’s mock-Tudor façade.
Liberty merchandising director Lydia King called the partnership “really exciting”, highlighting the nostalgia around Topshop’s heyday.
