Four years on from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK hospitality sector is still on the recovery path.
Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, the leading trade body for the sector in the UK, believes that on the whole, hospitality is ‘on the way back up’ but many businesses are still paying off debts from the covid period.
“They took on heavy debts as a result of being closed, so you’ve got ‘long-economic-covid’ impacting the sector, and that’s meaning that you've got greater fragility than would otherwise be the case when you then go into a cost of living crisis and a cost of doing business crisis.” Kate told the How To Be A CEO podcast.
Kate believes that a VAT cut could be the best way to breathe life into the sector, and has been lobbying the government to make it happen:
“This year, the single quickest and easiest thing that would help inject some oxygen back into the P-and-L, drive demand, get footfall moving, help businesses to pay down their debts and get faster back to recovery would be to cut VAT”
It’s a move the government made in July 2020 to help businesses survive through the various lockdown periods, and it was also implemented by Gordon Brown in 2008 to try to rescue Britain from recession.
In this episode of How To Be a CEO, Kate discusses the benefits of such a cut, and what else businesses require to thrive in 2024.
Kate also dives into her experience in previous roles as CEO, reveals how hospitality businesses like cafés and restaurants in London are adapting to the rise in people working from home, and explains why she hates the term ‘staycation’.
To hear the full conversation with Kate, listen to this episode of the How To Be A CEO podcast, above, or alternatively find us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you stream your podcasts.
