Hospitality VAT Petition Passed 250,000 as Campaign Officially Launches

The #VATsTheProblem petition, which was officially launched to consumers yesterday (July 1) and spearheaded by chef Tom Kerridge has surpassed a quarter of a million signatures following a massive consumer push, and now stands at 250,400.

Chef Tom Kerridge is spearheading campaign which has united hospitality businesses and teams, high-profile chefs, and sector trade bodies and organisations.

The campaign’s single ask is for the Government to cut hospitality VAT to 10%, in line with Europe.

The campaign’s organisers are targeting 1 million signatures to build an unanswerable case for Government action.

Yesterday the campaign moved into its consumer-facing phase, with businesses across the country encouraged to display #VATsTheProblem branding and ask customers to sign directly.

That means the next phase depends on operators. Venues, staff, and customers all need to get behind this together. The more visible the campaign becomes inside pubs, restaurants, hotels, and cafes, the harder it becomes for ministers to look the other way.

Tom Kerridge said, “Let’s take the incredible momentum we’ve already built and get our pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels and many more decked out in #VATsTheProblem branding, to make sure consumers understand and are fully behind us.”

The campaign has launched an online shop, with campaign assets available for operators to download, print and use in venue to encourage consumers to sign the petition to back 10% hospitality VAT.

The shop includes free-to-download files that operators can print themselves, as well as versions with print bleeds that be sent by a venue to their normal print provider.

The selection of campaign assets will continue to be expanded over the coming weeks, including the ability to purchase already printed materials at cost price to be posted to your venue ready-to-use.

The shop can be viewed here.