In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the trade body claims the sector has lost 69,000 jobs between October 2024 and May 2025, which it directly attributes to last year’s Autumn Budget.
It notes that in the same period the previous year, hospitality created an additional 18,000 jobs.
“The economy needs jobs. Hospitality creates them. But we are being taxed out,” says Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality.
The 2024 Autumn Budget has been much criticised by sector having saddled operators with a rise in employment costs including National Insurance contributions (NICs), and a cut in business rates support.
UKHospitality is calling on the Government to lower business rates through the maximum discount for hospitality businesses as part of the promised business rates reform.
It is also once again asking for a cut to the sector’s VAT bill.
“The Government needs sectors like hospitality to create jobs and meet their ambition to get more people back into work,” Nicholls continues.
“We have a proven track record of being able to deliver those jobs in every part of the country and for people from all backgrounds.”
Describing the NICs rise as a ‘socially regressive’ tax that has had ‘a disproportionate effect on entry level jobs’, she adds: “Without a change of tack from the government we could be looking at over 150,000 fewer workers in hospitality, when we should be bringing people into the jobs market.”
UKHospitality’s letter comes after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published last month, showed that accommodation and food service recorded the largest decrease in payrolled employees of any sector in the year to May.
Last week, a Conservative MP warned the Government that the hospitality sector is being ‘taxed out of existence’ as part of a Westminster Hall debate.
Mike Wood, the Conservative MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, who led the debate, warned of the challenges facing the sector, noting the impact of the Autumn Budget.
“Hospitality is being taxed out of existence, and that is a political choice,” he said.
“We need a change of course not just for the sector, but for every community that depends on it. We need policies that reflect the value that hospitality brings — economically, socially and culturally — and we need action now.”