New petition calls for hospitality VAT to be cut to 10%

A restaurateur has launched a petition calling on the government to halve the rate of hospitality VAT to help the industry survive a “storm” of spiralling costs.

Andy Lennox, who runs the Fired Up hospitality group in Dorset, said the current 20% rate was saddling struggling businesses with huge tax bills.

He is calling for hospitality VAT to be cut to 10% to help venues cope with rising wages, food costs, energy bills and debts.

If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures the government must respond, and at 100,000 it will be considered for debate in parliament.

Lennox said: “I see lots of online chat around VAT, but 1,000 tweets are not going to change anything. If people sign the petition, we can use that to lobby MPs.

He added: “Margins are down with inflation, wages have spiralled, and we’ve had three years of price increases. You can’t charge customers any more, but every single cost is going up.

“I’ve been told of more [hospitality] closures in the last few weeks than I saw during Covid. If the government doesn’t listen, they are going to lose some of the best and brightest in our industry.”

He said there was “no point people working for nothing” if their VAT bill wiped out their profits.

The petition is calling for the 10% rate to be extended to hot food, soft drinks events and door tickets, accommodation, and visitor attractions.

In early 2021 Lennox launched a petitionto extend the reduced 5% hospitality VAT rate brought in during the pandemic until March 2022, which reached almost 18,000 signatures and received a response from the government.

He said the new petition could be used to “add weight to the argument” for lowering the tax rate.

“If [the government] don’t cut the tax rate I can’t see how any of us [in hospitality] are going to survive.

"As an industry right now it’s the worst it’s ever been. It feels harder now than at any point in the last three years.”

To sign the petition visit the Gov.uk website.

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