On Thursday 14th September, Jessica hosted a roundtable with hospitality and leisure businesses in Bournemouth Town Centre to find out more about the challenges they face. This was hosted by Bad Hand Coffee at their HQ and supported by the Town Centre BID.
Participants included representatives from Brewhouse & Kitchen, The Old Fire Station, HALO Nightclub, Naked Coffee, Poole Hill Brewery and others.
They described the past few years as a “perfect storm” - COVID, followed by food and energy price rises, staff and skills shortages, and now a general rise in crime and antisocial behaviour affecting their staff and customers.
Attendees described how they would like to see more educational opportunities for young people seeking to enter the sector and an improvement in the perception of a career in hospitality. Hospitality is the largest private sector employer in the country, employing 3.2m people, but there are few further education opportunities.
The group also raised the desire to see a changes to the VAT regime, particularly on alcohol, and action to make the town centre safer.
Jessica will be speaking on a panel at Labour Party Conference in October about how best to support SMEs in the hospitality sector and sharing the experiences of Bournemouth based businesses.
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