If the pandemic had hit 12 years ago when we were a business with 9 sites I very much doubt we’d have survived. In the last 12 years we’ve opened a further 161 sites & in the process created over 4.5k jobs.
How many small, viable hospitality businesses with enormous potential...

...will fail as a result of the government not providing additional support at the 11th hour? Expecting these businesses who have no turnover, & nothing left, to pay employers NI & pension contributions is plain wrong. Everyone in hospitality will do everything they can to keep..

..their teams together & you can guarantee the last penny that goes out the door before it’s ‘game over’ will be on ensuring staff are paid. However, the simple fact of the matter is that if there’s no business left there’s no jobs resulting in an unimaginable amount of jobs,...

...that the government has fought to save, being lost.
Thousands of hospitality businesses will run out of money in the coming weeks resulting not just in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs but the loss of businesses that can create jobs and play a very significant part..

...in helping any future economic recovery.
@RishiSunak If you want to invest money to create jobs you need look no further than giving hospitality businesses the extra support they need to survive in order to, genuinely, protect jobs & keep future job-creators afloat.

Loungers was a small business once & I know how hard this must be hitting small businesses in our sector. I also know the sacrifices business owners will be making in order to try & make it through.
Having a business that’s created 5k jobs is my proudest achievement but..

..things could have been so different had a pandemic hit when we were small.
So @RishiSunak @BorisJohnson @KwasiKwarteng @scullyp let’s get these small businesses through to the other side: -

You need to scrap employers NI and pensions contributions for all small hospitality...

...businesses & backdate it to the beginning of November & refund accordingly. Calculate on a maximum level of historic turnover or number of employees but target it at small businesses only.
Our business will be fine, as will the great majority of big businesses in our sector,..

..albeit we would like an extension to the VAT cut & business rates holiday as this will help us to plan making investments & creating jobs.
But let’s give the entrepreneurs & job-creators of the future one last shot of support & let’s do this urgently as time is running out.