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Calling the Budget

The Autumn Statement, which will be announced on Wednesday 30 October by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, has already been foreshadowed as ‘painful’ by the Prime Minister himself – but what will it hold in store for both the hospitality and spirits industries?

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, there are a number of things I’m concerned about. The hospitality and spirits industries have taken many blows over the past few years – including duty hikes and ever-increasing costs of doing business, serving a public who are strapped for cash due to sky-high cost of living.

• Read more: Pubs and hospitality warn of job cuts if rates relief ends

I could choose to be completely unrealistic and set out a few outlandish hopes for the Autumn Statement – but I’m a pragmatist and would much rather keep both feet firmly on the ground. I understand that the government has a challenging task in hand, so I think the best that the spirits and hospitality industries can hope for is to be left well alone, and to retain the status quo.

Earlier in October a group of 280 distillers, represented by UK Spirits Alliance, wrote to the new Chancellor urging her to reverse last August’s duty hike, which saw spirits duty increase by 10.1% – which in turn contributed to inflation. The hike introduced changes which mean that the higher a liquid’s abv, the higher the duty paid. With the group proposing evidence that the hike hasn’t benefitted the government, the industry or consumers, it remains to be seen whether it’s enough to enact a change through the Autumn Statement.

But beyond alcohol duties, there are numerous other pressures faced by hospitality that could be exacerbated by the new Budget.

Aside from the cost of booze itself, almost everything is more expensive. Whilst in spirits we welcome the scrapping of duty stamps and potential reforms to warehousing, costs continue to rise, including those associated with energy and employment – and this is acutely affecting hospitality. One of the biggest insults to injury for the industry would be an end to the current business rates relief, in March 2025.

The UK’s hospitality industry is a key employer and has shown on multiple occasions that it can drive the economy. But with 50 pubs a month closing in the first half of this year and one in 10 still at risk of imminent closure – I sincerely doubt venues can handle another punch to the gut.

Both the spirits and hospitality industries rely heavily on the spending power of the great British consumer. And with the tax burden already at a post-WWII high, any further changes to the tax regime could damage that spending power for both venues and retailers alike.

We rely on the general public having disposable income – without it, we simply can’t succeed. And whilst the government has a difficult job to do, ‘filling the black hole’, I hope there is consideration being paid to the numerous costs being put upon businesses versus the spending power of the British public.

We already find ourselves operating in a landscape where many SMEs simply can’t survive – which creates monopolies for bigger businesses that have the funds to weather the storm. But I work with the independent producers and venues, and I can testify that these entrepreneurs are the innovators and creators; the ones doing things better, doing things for good, and keeping the industry interesting. It would be a real shame if the Autumn Statement doesn’t recognise that businesses still need support – and without successful businesses, recovery is going to be an impossible task.

• Spirits
• Restaurants
• Bars
• pubs
• hospitality
• Inflation
• Budget
• SMEs
• business rates relief
• Labour government
• autumn statement 2024