Dr Simon Opher

In my constituency, we are incredibly fortunate to have loads of thriving community independent pubs, restaurants and cafés. As my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Alex McIntyre) said, many of us had our first jobs in pubs. I have been speaking to a number of people in independent hospitality businesses, such as Greg at Stroud Brewery, the irreplaceable Lotte and Miles at the Prince Albert, Fred Hulls at The Royal Oak in Wotton-under-Edge and others in many other pubs in my area. I welcome the steps taken by the Chancellor in the recent Budget to reduce the burden of business rates. Increasing the small business rates relief threshold has taken hundreds of our local businesses out of the rate systems altogether and many other venues have benefited from a two-year freeze. One thing that many publicans talk about, however, is VAT, which creates a big financial burden. As has been said, we charge 20% VAT, which is a lot higher than most of Europe. I support a targeted reduction; we must be careful, because a universal cut in VAT for hospitality would cost about £12 billion and give McDonald’s about £400 million, which I am not in favour of. However, a targeted solution such as that proposed in Bournemouth is surely the way forward, so that our smaller pubs and hospitality venues can benefit. I hope that Ministers will go further and examine the case for VAT relief. We must protect an industry that supports jobs—for many of us, our first jobs—strengthens our local economies and brings our communities together.