For too long, our sector has been undervalued in national discussions about growth and productivity. Traditional metrics like GDP and economic productivity have dominated the conversation, prioritising sectors such as manufacturing, technology and finance - heavily concentrated in the London and South East regions.
At the same time hospitality is delivering social impact across the UK. For example, hospitality is the biggest employer of part-time workers and young people, it offers flexible working and fast career progression, plus its venues are at the heart of local communities. We believe this is as – if not more – valuable a metric of our worth to the UK economy than financial output alone. With this in mind, we’ve created the Social Productivity Index (SPI), a new framework for measuring growth, taking into consideration what really matters. Our SPI challenges traditional methods of defining economic success and acknowledges that there’s more to growth than raw economics.
Created by the UKHospitality team, using data from the Office for National Statistics, the SPI ranks sectors not just by output, but by their ability to share growth widely, ensure social and geographic accessibility, and create real, positive social impact.
Hospitality emerges as the overall top performing sector in the SPI, with the highest average positioning across the 12 areas measured. It ranks in the top five sectors for geographic spread, gender balance, employment of non-white British team members, proportion of managers without degrees, and post-pandemic growth. We’re also number one when it comes to employing under-25s, offering part-time opportunities and providing access for non-graduates.
The index demonstrates that industries such as ours perform better than many of the high economic productivity sectors that, in reality, often fail to reach communities most in need of opportunity but are prioritised in the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
Supporting jobs and communities in every part of the country, offering career opportunities for all and driving social mobility is what the nation needs right now, and hospitality is clearly best placed to deliver it. Hospitality venues aren’t just fuelling recovery — they’re enabling mobility, access, and resilience, and the Government’s Industrial Strategy needs to recognise this.
To truly realise the potential of hospitality and the foundation economy to drive socially productive growth, UKHospitality has three recommendations for the Government:
- Include social productivity and geographical distribution of growth alongside economic productivity when making impact assessments and developing public policy
- Establish location-based strategies for areas and sectors that have been excluded from highly concentrated high-economic productivity sectors, helping to reduce regional inequality and provide equitable economic opportunities across the UK
- Carry out analysis to reveal how high social productivity sectors, like hospitality, contribute to the success of high-economic productivity sectors
Restaurants don’t just serve customers. They serve economies, build careers, breathe life into local areas, and they’ve proven their value time and time again.
If the Government is serious about building a fairer, stronger economy, it’s fundamental for sectors like hospitality to be included in its Industrial Strategy. We’re the ones that can drive positive social change, alongside economic growth, if we’re properly valued and supported.
Kate Nicholls is chief executive of UKHospitality