Canterbury MP warns hospitality industry is in ‘dire state’ as costs pile up
Rosie Duffield MP has written to the Chancellor calling for a cut in VAT on hospitality to 10% after hosting a roundtable with chefs, restaurant owners and industry bodies on 1 June.
Pubs, restaurants and cafés across Canterbury, Whitstable and the wider county are being squeezed from every direction — higher employer National Insurance, a rising National Living Wage, shrinking business rates relief, energy costs — and their MP says it’s now a crisis. Rosie Duffield, MP for Canterbury, brought together chefs, restaurateurs, representatives from UKHospitality and the Institute of Hospitality, and fellow MPs on 1 June to talk through what she described as the “dire state” of the industry.
After the meeting, Duffield wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer urging a temporary cut in hospitality VAT from 20% to 10%, alongside support for employment and measures to bring down eye-watering energy bills. She’s also gone further — raising the issue directly with ministers and the Prime Minister in Parliament.
The numbers stack up fast. The National Living Wage rose to £11.44 per hour from April 2024, extended to workers aged 21 and over for the first time, up from rates that previously covered only those aged 23 and over. For any pub or restaurant running a large floor team on minimum pay, that’s a hefty addition to the weekly wage bill before the lights are even switched on. Changes to employer National Insurance thresholds have then piled on more.
Business rates are part of it too. The generous pandemic-era discounts that kept many venues afloat have been wound back, leaving some operators facing bills that bear little resemblance to what they paid during the peak support years.
Not her first attempt, either. Duffield previously co-signed a letter to the Chancellor with North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale on hospitality ahead of a Budget. That letter, she’s indicated, went unanswered. The sector is also pushing for a dedicated Minister for Hospitality — the argument being that without one, the industry simply doesn’t have a voice in the rooms where these decisions get made.
Canterbury city centre — independent restaurants, student cafés, historic pubs, the whole visitor trade — relies on hospitality as one of its biggest employers. Without some form of intervention, the sector is warning of closures, cut hours and job losses. Customers, naturally, would feel it too.
The Government’s position is that higher minimum wages benefit workers, that the National Insurance changes help restore public finances, and that energy support and business rates schemes have provided targeted help. It has not committed to any VAT reduction, temporary or otherwise.
Duffield is awaiting a response from the Chancellor to her letter calling for a 10% hospitality VAT rate and support on energy costs.
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Source: @RosieDuffield1
Published: 30 July 2026