Debate contribution: Hospitality VAT Harmonisation

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 10 February 2025.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

10 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Hospitality VAT Harmonisation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4790957

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I have spoken on this issue before, and I have raised it a couple of times. The motion lays out the importance of hospitality and the stats on it, so I will not repeat them. As the economy spokesperson for Alliance, I regularly meet the industry. Only a matter of weeks ago, Colin Neill of Hospitality Ulster and I chatted through some of the issues. I listened again so that I could understand the concerns about the problems that the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions in the new financial year will cause to the industry. Ideally, this would be about the work that we can do to help. It has been recognised that, compared with GB, we have a unique demographic of hospitality businesses. Most of our operators are local, and the national chains do not trade here, so most of our businesses are small in terms of turnover and jobs. That can be viewed as a risk for the industry, but it should be seen as a real positive and a strength for us, as each business offers a unique experience that is an expression of the community around it. We do not have repeats of the default chain offering in each of our towns and villages, but we have cracking local businesses. We have cracking pubs that produce high-quality food and drinks and that are part of the community in which they trade. It is local people about whom we are talking and supporting. We should thank those businesses and celebrate what they have achieved. However, that demographic means that the burden of taxation, whether in VAT, rates or corporation tax, falls heavily on our local hospitality businesses. They do not have either the buffer of the economies of scale of the larger chains in GB or the lower costs that come from their greater purchasing power. Importantly, post COVID, they have had neither the three years of 75% reduction in rates that businesses across the water have enjoyed nor the 50% reduction this year, which has not been replicated. I find it frustrating when we talk about stuff and all agree but no action ever follows. I find it absolutely baffling that, last week, when we debated a motion on a shared island and discussed working together as an island to improve local public services, such as those in health, and our economy, the Ulster Unionist Party voted against it.

A week later, we debate a motion in which the Ulster Unionist Party asks for all-island alignment on taxation. I just do not get how that view can change in such a short time. That brings cynicism to politics in Northern Ireland that is not helpful.

I am happy to support the motion, but we need to get real. Our hospitality businesses do not need photo opportunities, Facebook posts or tokenistic, populist calls and talk in here: they need help and action. They need the reduction in the tax burden that they have been calling for for a long time. Everyone agrees, but we need to see the action lived out into our businesses. We do not need more talk: we need delivery. Businesses do not care what you call the tax. What affects them is the gross amount that they pay in tax, whether you call it "VAT", "rates" or "corporation tax". Whatever form it takes, it is the bottom line between profit and loss. It does not matter what you call that tax. We need to look at that. The elephant in the room is where the motion calls for Ministers to meet and discuss. I stress again that we need action to help, and we need to start allowing our businesses to trade, grow and flourish. Our hospitality businesses need that now. They expect the Minister and the Assembly to help. They need it now. That help can and should be delivered. We can do that now in rates relief. The Alliance Party has continually called for the delivery of a small business rates review that will look at enabling a progressive rating system that is fair for all businesses, a system that is not a blunt instrument and that looks at a band with a progressive percentage rate that is fair for everyone. That would help to invigorate our high streets as the community assets that they are and to balance the burden of tax across our community. Our hospitality businesses need help now.

742 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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