Franchisors, hotel membership affiliates and SMEs have lost out on this budget, prepared by a Chancellor who doesn't know what he is doing, and Gordon Brown has been utterly selfish in his attack on the hotelier and catering enterprises as a whole.
Brown is now subsidizing the corporate, which have moved their headquarters to low cost countries by a 2% drop in corporation tax, at the expense of smaller businesses that have been hit by overhead costs of business administration (accounts, insurance, employers NI etc.) to comply with government regulations. Hotels, Bed & Breakfast, Self Catering and suppliers will pay the same tax as if they were a PAYE employee, whilst still meeting all the associated costs.
Brown has reduced tax relief on capital allowances from it's current 40% to 25%, 20% and then 10% up to 2008/2009 before being phased out.
At a time when the hotel and catering sector is already bracing themselves for the rapid cost inflation on alcohol and the forthcoming smoking ban - the trade may suffer from a reduction of business, as a proportion of the public may prefer to drink and smoke elsewhere as mentioned in the Caterer.
Nick Goulding, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business was cited in
This is Money, 'The Chancellor has used smoke and mirrors to disguise the fact that there is nothing in this Budget to support small businesses. In fact, the resulting confusion created by some of his initiatives will serve only to increase the red tape burden.'
In the present circumstances, many Hotels and restaurants already have to do serious promotion to survive. Our impression is that following these changes many will have to increase promotions considerably and perhaps find new and additional ways of doing this.
These could include web sites, web casting, web video, E-Newsletters and E-Bulletins.
If there is any function that could be done overseas, you are welcome to consult us further for appropriate advice on outsourcing, which we can arrange for you.
Our support team are available on Tel. +44 (0)20 8432 6450 - Email: service@cateringpage.com
Please leave a message with your phone number. All messages are checked regularly.
Warm
regards, Lawrence Perry, Managing Director of
Catering Page are a trade
name of
Dolma International Ltd,
Serving the Hotelier with Website
Solutions. . and advising you on Outsourcing to the Philippines
Catering Page and Dolma Interactive are trading names used by DOLMA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
Registered Office: 60 ROBIN HOOD WAY GREENFORD MIDDLESEX UB6 7QN, UK Company No. 05060920
