Budget call

The newly constituted All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Hospitality and Tourism has called for additional government support for hospitality and tourism businesses at Wednesday’s Budget.

In a letter signed by more than 80 MPs from right across the political divide, the APPG is urging the chancellor to provide decisive financial support to protect sector businesses crucial to communities around the UK.  

The cross-party group points out that the UK’s tourism and hospitality sectors are both world leaders, but they have been devastated by the Covid crisis. Industry figures show hospitality sales plummeted 54% in 2020, equivalent to £72bn, while 40% of accommodation and food service activities businesses have no or low confidence that their businesses would survive for the next three months.

UKHospitality CEO, Kate Nicholls said: “The support of so many MPs from all parties and from the four nations of the UK emphasises just how important the hospitality and tourism sectors are – and how desperately they need the Chancellor’s help at Budget. Our sectors can be the engine of recovery, rapidly creating jobs and tackling youth unemployment. The chancellor can speed this recovery with extensions to the VAT cut and business rates holiday for the next year.”

www.ukhospitality.org.uk

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

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John Hope, Enfield, North London

I must say that these cross-party groups do seem to work and the General Aviation one in particular although without Shapps it seems to have lost a little of its momentum.