Here we go again, another glossy announcement from Rachel Reeves, another round of applause from people who’ve never had to meet a payroll in their lives, and another crushing blow for the small businesses that actually keep Britain going.
The Chancellor is hiking the minimum wage and national living wage yet again. Now look, as human beings, of course we want people to earn more - nobody begrudges anyone a decent wage, but out here in the real world, the shop floors, the backstreet pubs, the tiny cafes and the family-run restaurants are already drowning in costs and wage bills.
And this latest rise is another weight tied around our ankles.
We’re still reeling from her last Budget - the National Insurance rises, the cutting of business rates relief and the avalanche of extra costs. That budget alone pushed thousands of businesses to the brink, and many went over it.
The figures simply don’t lie: record closures, hundreds of thousands of jobs gone, especially in hospitality, the very sector that pulled this country out of the Covid slump.
And now, before we’ve even had a chance to recover, we’re being slapped with hundreds more pounds per week on the wage bill.
Where exactly are we supposed to find this money?!
From the magical pot of infinite cash, the Treasury seems to think we’ve got stashed out back?
Because I’ll tell you now, for most small businesses, it doesn’t exist.
Many of our customers are skint; they’ve got less disposable income than at any point in recent memory. They’re cutting back on meals out, pints after work, birthday dinners, weekends away, all the things that keep hospitality alive.
So when income is dropping, and costs are exploding, how on earth are we supposed to absorb yet another massive rise in wages?
Raising the minimum wage is another weight tied around our ankles. This is suicide - Adam Brooks | Getty Images
I’ll tell you what happens, and this is my lived experience. We let staff go, we cut shifts, and we stop hiring.
We raise prices just to keep the doors open.
It’s not greed, it’s maths, it’s the cold reality of running a small business with thin margins and a shrinking customer base. And it is exactly, word for word, what happened after the last budget.
This government bangs on endlessly about “growth”, but every policy screams the opposite. There’s no incentivising of hiring. No encouragement for investment, and no reduction in costs in one area before whacking us in another.
The lefties just keep piling on pressure until something snaps, and for thousands of businesses, something already has. Let’s call it what it is it is economic self-sabotage.
If this Government doesn’t give small businesses serious tax relief or meaningful cost cuts in another area, this isn’t just misguided, it’s suicide for the high street.
And I’m done pretending this is just incompetence. When every decision hits the same sector, when every change makes survival harder, when every announcement squeezes one of Britain’s most culturally important industries, you have to ask the question…
Is this deliberate?
Because hospitality isn’t just an economic sector and a major employer of Britons. It’s our heritage, it’s where people meet, talk, laugh, and live. It’s where millions had their first jobs and learned responsibility, built confidence.
It’s a community.
It’s culture.
It’s Britain.
And yet this Labour Government looks like it’s more interested in shutting it down than saving it.
The minimum wage hike might sound compassionate on an official podium, but on the ground, where real businesses operate, it could be the final nail in the coffin for pubs, cafes, and restaurants across the country.
If they don’t change course and fast, there won’t be an industry left to save.
You watch, the very people this government thinks it is helping by earning more per hour will end up getting fewer shifts from their employer.
Madness.
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