‘We’ve had a tough time’ London bar owner on the budget

We speak to a local business owner about how Labour’s polices are impacting the hospitality sector in London.

Transcript

00:00Yes, lots happening in the budget recently announced by the Chancellor.

00:06Major talking points obviously include lifting the two-child benefit cap,

00:11which will no doubt lift thousands of children out of poverty here in the capital.

00:17But a freeze on tax thresholds across the UK is also set to affect Londoners more than anywhere else,

00:24with London seeing the highest wages in the country.

00:30In amongst all of the new implementations, though, Rachel Reeves highlighted her support for hospitality,

00:37working with pubs and bars across the UK,

00:40and even suggesting relaxed rules when it comes to letting establishments open later.

00:48So then how exactly will this impact the hospitality sector in the capital?

00:54I spoke to the owner of Polo Bar in East London.

00:56Well, I can't say they've done too many favours for the hospitality industry in particular,

01:02if I'm being brutally honest.

01:03We've had a tough time, you know, even previously to the Labour government, it was tough.

01:09But I think having had this new government in, there hasn't been much in terms of help given to us.

01:16You know, we've had, yeah, you know, I go back to Brexit.

01:20Obviously, that wasn't the Labour government.

01:22But that was the real instigator of the sort of downward spiral.

01:27And I think that even with the announcement yesterday, minimum wage going up, great.

01:32That is a great thing.

01:34However, there is a cost to that.

01:36Where does that cost come from?

01:38We've still had no, you know, VATs at 20% for us, you know, which is a lot for the hospitality industry.

01:45Rising food inflation, you know, everything's going up more than in line with inflation,

01:49even the minimum wage as it happens.

01:51And these costs have to be either absorbed, sustained or passed on to the customer or a mixture of both.

01:57And my, not my fear, but my problem is with that, you're either going to have the big foreign companies coming in with, like, big money.

02:07Okay, yeah, that's fair enough.

02:08But small independents, you know, like myself, we are going to struggle with finding this extra money, effectively.

02:15And that will obviously lead to perhaps more businesses going bust, you know.

02:21And that is an unfortunate situation that could arise, in my view.

02:25Do you know what, London is one of the biggest, best cities in the world.

02:30So to have it running over longer hours, that's great.

02:34You know, I think people, you know, especially young people will benefit from that.

02:38You know, the nighttime economy is a big talking point, like you rightly say.

02:42It does bring with it its own difficulties in terms of management, you know, operational difficulties, security and things like that.

02:48But to have us have the ability to be able to trade longer and potentially pay our bills easier, it's got to be a winner.

02:59So to have some time, I think it's got to be a winner.

03:01I think it's got to be a winner.