'We're going to see more businesses close": Sacha Lord outlines five-point plan to 'save hospitality'
manchestereveningnews.co.ukSacha Lord has set out a ‘five point plan’ to ‘save hospitality’ as it heads into the winter. Lord, who set up the Warehouse Project nightclub and is now the night-time economy tsar for Greater Manchester, outlined his vision at the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Sunday (October 8).
Appearing alongside Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell, deputy mayor of Greater Manchester Kate Green, and restauranter Simon Wood, Lord said action is needed now otherwise ‘we are going to see more businesses close’. “Out of the five points, four of them don’t cost money — it’s just policy change,” he told the M.E.N.
after the panel. “If [the government] don’t take action now we are going to see more businesses close. That’s job losses at a time when we need to get more people in there.” READ MORE: "Get off!": Stage invader interrupts Labour Party conference ahead of Angela Rayner's speech READ MORE: 'A council house saved my life', Angela Rayner says to unveil housing reforms The most important of his five points, he said, was to reinstate the 12.5 percent ‘hospitality rate’ of VAT, which was introduced during the pandemic, but ended in March 2022.
That meant many businesses were faced with paying a full 20 percent of VAT during the energy bill crisis of last summer. “Other European countries [set it at] eight or nine percent,” he added.
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