Hospitality is part of Somerset’s identity. From seaside cafés in Burnham-on-Sea to traditional pubs in our villages and restaurants across Bridgwater, the sector provides jobs, strengthens communities, and is the lifeblood of our local economy. Yet right now this industry is being hit harder than almost any other, and the consequences are already being felt in Somerset.
Since Labour’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced her £25 billion Jobs Tax last October Britain’s hospitality sector has lost almost 90,000 jobs, more than half of all job losses across the entire economy. One in every 25 jobs in pubs, hotels, cafés and restaurants has disappeared in less than a year. This is the waiter who no longer has shifts, the chef whose hours are cut, and the family business forced to close earlier in the week.
Why is hospitality hit so badly? Reeves raised employers’ National Insurance from 13.8% to 15% while also lowering the threshold at which the tax kicks in, from £9,100 to £5,000. That means businesses are paying more to employ the staff on which the sector relies. In Somerset, where seasonal tourism underpins much of our hospitality trade, particularly in parts of my constituency, those additional costs are crushing.
Before the Budget there were around 90,000 vacancies in UK hospitality. Today there are 73,000, the lowest level since the pandemic. In other words businesses are not hiring, they are cutting back. Income that should be spent on investment and growth is instead being swallowed by higher payroll costs and soaring payments.
It does not stop there. Across the wider economy, companies are now offshoring jobs to South Africa and India because Labour has made it more expensive to employ people here at home. Skilled roles in recruitment, administration and marketing are being moved abroad. For Somerset’s small hospitality businesses, offshoring is not an option. If you run a pub in Cannington or a café in Burnham, your staff need to be behind the counter, not on another continent. That makes Labours Jobs Tax even more damaging for local employers.
Somerset businesses need backing, not higher costs. They need lower business rates (the chancellor hiked that too), fairer employment taxes and a government that understands the reality of running a small business. Instead, Labour has saddled Somerset business with a jobs tax that is forcing closures, cutting shifts, and leaving our communities worse off.
We Conservatives have consistently opposed Labour’s damaging tax rises on working people and small businesses. We have led the fight against the Jobs Tax, and are committed to reversing this government’s cruel and unnecessary taxes on ambition. With the right choices, businesses in Somerset will thrive.
