Chancellor faces pressure as pubs and restaurants cling on for life with doors still shut
27 February 2021 • 12:00pm
Boris Johnson may have raised the prospect of a cut in beer duty in this week’s Budget, but Phil Whitehead, the man in charge of Britain’s most popular pint, is at best only cautiously optimistic.
Johnson told the Commons last Wednesday that Rishi Sunak was looking at reducing the levy down to rates charged by the likes of Germany “very closely”.
But just days before the Chancellor stands before the dispatch box, Whitehead, the UK and Ireland boss of Molson Coors – the brewing giant behind Carling – persists in using words like “should” and “could”.
Hospitality sector expected to employ fewer people in 2023 than in 2019 The hospitality sector will take longer than most other sectors to recover jobs lost in 2020, employing substantially fewer people in 2023 than it did in 2019, according to the latest forecast from consultancy firm EY.
Employment in the hospitality sector is predicted to fall by the equivalent of an annual average of 1.39% by 2023 compared with 2019, according to EY’s Regional Economic Forecast, behind manufacturing (down1.55%) and water and waste management (down 1.50%).
“The pandemic has resulted in many businesses having to significantly restructure their cost base. With payroll the biggest single cost for most businesses, this may mean some will face tough decisions around their longer-term headcount,” says Christian Mole, EY’s UK&I head of hospitality and leisure.