RedCat latest voice added to rates row

Richard Lewis, CEO of RedCat Hospitality, is the latest on-trade operator to add his voice to the ongoing rates row with Westminster. 

Lewis (pictured) has called for any review of the business rates crisis by government to cover all hospitality businesses, including accommodation venues, such as pubs with rooms and hotels.

Reports in recent days suggest the government is set to review business rates amid an outcry from hospitality over the scale of the latest planned hikes, which were originally announced in the November Budget.

Many believe that any subsequent intervention by the government will not go far enough, and may only deliver support to pubs, leaving other types of hospitality businesses struggling to absorb the swingeing increases. 

One voice

The calls from Lewis echo similar pleas from other hotel operators, such as Hilton, as well as similar campaigning from café and restaurant operators.

"There are two things that the broad hospitality industry – including businesses like ours – urgently require of the government," says Lewis. "The first is to make good on the current government’s manifesto commitment to fundamentally reform what is an out-of-date rates system that unfairly taxes hospitality businesses.

"In the absence of meaningful reform in the here and now, the second thing the sector needs is immediate action to avert the latest proposed increases, which for many businesses are astonishing and nonsensical. Without this, the government risks overseeing a significant contraction of the sector, and stifling jobs, investment and growth."

Lewis also said that it was important for ministers to evaluate rates in the context of other significant cost increases from recent Budgets, such National Insurance Contributions and the rising levels of the minimum wage, which had a knock-on effect across pay scales, and are impacting the whole hospitality sector.    

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