Editor’s Viewpoint: Chancellor’s Spending Review Misses the Mark – Again

By Peter Adams, Editor, CLH News.

Just days after the Office for National Statistics reported a sharp rise in unemployment, with a staggering 109,000 jobs lost in May alone and the overall jobless rate climbing to 4.6%—the highest since the summer of 2021—you might expect a Spending Review that acknowledges the pressure facing employers across key industries.

You’d be wrong!

Despite the hospitality and licensed on-trade sector being one of the country’s largest private employers—and one of its hardest hit in recent years—the Chancellor’s latest Spending Review makes no real mention of our industry.

It’s as though pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels, and bars don’t exist in the government’s economic playbook.

Since Rachel Reeves’s Autumn Statement, over a quarter of a million jobs have been lost in Britain.

Nearly 300 pubs have closed across England and Wales in 2024 alone—that’s more than 4,500 jobs gone. It’s a bleak tally, and worse still, it’s falling on deaf ears in Westminster.

Frankly, this sector is growing tired of being ignored—and worse, punished.

While the recent good weather has encouraged people back out to eat and drink—and we’ve seen that firsthand through increased footfall and spending—the truth is this: the sector isn’t bouncing back because of government policy. It’s bouncing back in spite of it.

As Saxon Moseley of RSM UK rightly pointed out, good weather has driven 0.3% GDP growth across accommodation and food services, helping to offset January’s sharp fall. Encouraging, yes. But just imagine how much further we could go with a fairer playing field.

For my “Tenpenneth”: Hospitality does not need government support. It needs less government interference.

As an ex-hospitality operator myself, I’m reminded of that brilliant Ronald Reagan quote:
“I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

Never has that felt more relevant. What our industry truly needs is the freedom to thrive—unfettered by punitive taxation, wage mandates, suffocating regulation, and constant fiscal tinkering. Stop treating this sector like a cash cow.

Let it breathe. Let it do what it does best: create jobs, drive growth, and lift spirits.

If current policies continue, I have no doubt this industry will end up contributing less to the Treasury through declining revenues and costing more in welfare as jobs are lost.

It doesn’t take an economist to see where this ends.

But let’s not end on a sour note. The weekend ahead looks promising—sunny skies, a busy Father’s Day on the cards, and for me personally, I am being treated to a pub lunch in the New Forest.

Just another reminder of what this great sector brings to the country: community, connection, and a chance to unwind.

Worth raising a glass to that!

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I can always be contacted at edit@catererlicensee.com