Hospitality Ulster urge business owners to complete survey so they can ‘tell Government’
Hospitality Ulster are inviting stakeholders to take part in their Quarterly Survey to help inform Government of the challenges facing the sector.
In a call-to-action, the sectoral support service’s CEO, Colin Neill MBE said: “With ongoing challenges around cost pressures, energy prices and labour shortages, this is an important opportunity for us to take the temperature of the sector and feed this into Government, opposition parties and wider stakeholders.
The data collected will also feed into our submissions into the Treasury, ahead of an Autumn Statement. This will be our main opportunity for the rest of the year to influence tax policy.
The results will also assist in our ongoing discussions with Ministers, officials and the regulator on energy pricing. We are constantly asked for evidence to support the case for action, and these member surveys are vital in providing this.”
Just last month, Newry Mourne and Down District Council agreed a motion to lobby the Chancellor of the Exchequer to bring businesses back from “the point of no return” of cripplingly high inflation and VAT.
Related: Hospitality businesses report being in ‘major trouble’ and at ‘the point of no return’
The owners of popular Moira-based eatery The Alchemy cited economic pressures as the reason for announcing their shock closure earlier this month.
They said: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of our business due to the challenging economic climate we are currently facing.
“The unprecedented circumstances and uncertainties have made it increasingly difficult to sustain our operations.”
Related: Last orders called as popular Moira restaurant The Alchemy to close this weekend
The sector has also been hit by staff shortages coupled with a low pool of applicants for vacant positions.
Mr Neill continued: “Ongoing evidence on staff shortages help us to make the case for more intervention to boost the labour market – whether this is supporting more over-50s back into the market or interventions on childcare.”
Business owners are urged to complete the confidential survey before ‘close of play’ on Monday, July 24. The aggregated data will then be published and shared with policy makers.
Those with multiple venues are encouraged to complete the survey separately for each respective part. Of this, Mr Neill said: “We ask this, as it will enhance the granularity of the data which we are able to collect and share with HM Treasury.”
Mr Neill’s full statement and a link to the Quarterly Survey can be found here.