Eastleigh pub calls for more support from government as they struggle with costs
It comes as hospitality businesses prepare for Christmas
An Eastleigh pub's calling for more support from the government as they struggle with staffing costs on the build up to Christmas.
The Steam Town Brewery pub says they want to see more relief schemes to help small businesses like themselves with increasing costs.
David Mackie's the owner.
He said: "You want to be optimistic and you want to be buoyant, but it does get you down a bit.
"You're working very hard and obviously, working in the hospitality industry, it means people want service, which is, generally speaking, quite labour-intensive.
"So there isn't really a shortcut to that part of business.
"So much greater staff costs mean that it's stopping us from investing that money into the business.
"So obviously, we make beer, so we could maybe grow the brewery, we might think about buying another tank, which we can't do.
"We might have to put off the employment of maybe a new modern apprenticeship, which is something we were thinking about doing.
"It might be that there's less investment in the local labour market because we've got to cut back because of these extra costs.
"It's a disincentive to investment and it's not good for the economy in that respect."
The government have issued a response.
A Government spokesperson said: “We’re protecting pubs with the Budget’s £4.3 billion support package.
"Without this support, pubs would face a 45% increase in the bills they pay next year.
"This is on top of efforts to ease licensing, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints and capping corporation tax."