Norfolk restaurant owner calls for hospitality VAT cut in Spring Budget
The Value Added Tax charge for goods and services now stands at 20%
The owner of a restaurant in Norfolk is calling on the Chancellor to reduce the rate of VAT that hospitality businesses have to pay in tomorrow's Spring Budget.
The Value Added Tax charge for goods and services now stands at 20%, but it was reduced for restaurants, cafés and pubs to as low as 5% between 2020 and 2021.
Just after midday tomorrow, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will lay out the Government's economic plans for the year ahead.
Many have called for taxes to come down as part of this plan.
"It would provide an astronomical difference"
Hannah Springham is from Farmyard Restaurant in Norwich:
"The Government can't help us bring down the bills from the farmers. They also can't make the public a lot richer in the short-term.
"But what they can do is provide that tax cut, it would provide an astronomical difference to so many independent restaurants.
"It's been a real problem since Covid. Everyone was put into payment plans and accepted that this would be the way forwards.
"But the economic picture has been really difficult when we had to pay bounce back loans and had to pay people's holidays when they came back from Covid. It means all of that debt was just continuing to rise.
"This is about helping us to get through this crisis"
"Although it's great that so many people are going out for events and the like, there's so many restaurants that are closing now. That's because it's currently so hard to make money in this sector at the moment.
"This isn't about helping restaurants who don't know what they're doing. This is about helping us to get through this crisis, and it really is one for the sector.
"I would urge customers to support their local, independent restaurants instead of the big chains."