Carryduff Chef Gemma Austin looks at why Belfast restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open
Carryduff Chef Gemma Austin looks at why Belfast restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open
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00:00My name's Gem Austin and I am the owner of A Peculiar Tea in Belfast.
00:04Today we are going to be looking into the hospitality industry,
00:07giving you an insight into what it's like to be a business owner,
00:09and give an explanation as to why it is that so many restaurants are closing at the minute.
00:13So Colin, thank you very much for being with us today.
00:17Obviously if you want to tell everybody who you are to start with.
00:21Colin Needle, I work for Hospitality Ulster,
00:23which is the industry body for the hospitality sector in Northern Ireland.
00:27Our role in life is just to represent the industry and help the economy prosper in Northern Ireland.
00:34I suppose the main reason I wanted you to come in today
00:37was I'd obviously listened to some of the facts and figures that you had said on BBC Science
00:43and was really gobsmacked by them, even as a business owner myself.
00:46I think that sometimes we're not really aware of what's going on in the industry
00:50or what's going on in Northern Ireland at all until you hear those facts and figures.
00:55I just thought it would be really important for people across this country
00:59to basically get an understanding of what that is.
01:01Would you mind just sort of sharing some of that with us?
01:03Look, we have huge challenges in Northern Ireland because,
01:06if you just start at the basics, we have the highest energy costs in Europe.
01:11We've got actually the highest business rates in the OECD, never mind in the UK.
01:16If I compare it on a town like Blarn, over 62p in the pound for their rates.
01:23Their city in London is 52p in the pound.
01:26How does that add up?
01:28And then you add in all the extra.
01:30Our disposable income per household is much less.
01:34So we struggle, actually, even when people will say,
01:37oh, you're getting dear.
01:39We struggle to get the price we should get.
01:41Often people will point out, oh, you're as dear as London.
01:45Why wouldn't we be?
01:47We've got higher rates, higher energy costs.
01:50The same are actually often higher wage costs
01:52because we actually do pay a bit better than London in many instances.
01:56We aren't the big sort of chains that just turn out the same thing.
02:03And I'm not knocking them, but they have their place.
02:05So we're not buying at the price.
02:07If you look at a restaurant chain in England,
02:09what they buy at compared to our unique independent offer is much less.
02:13So yes, we're going to be at that price, and that's the real problem.
02:17Yeah, and I think is it maybe a misconception
02:20that people would go to London
02:22and would instantly allow themselves to pay more because they're in London,
02:26but the reality is in Belfast we are now at a stage
02:29where it's more expensive to have a restaurant in Belfast city centre
02:32than in London city centre.
02:34I mean, that's quite frightening.
02:35I think it is.
02:36I mean, for years we've always thought of London as the dearer place.
02:40If you live in London, you get an extra living allowance and stuff on your wage
02:45because it was more expensive.
02:47And for housing and the domestic side of things, yes, it is more expensive.
02:52But to run a business is dearer in Belfast than it is in London.
02:56Yeah, which is quite frightening when you think about it.
02:58It is horrendous.
02:59And I think my worry, to be honest, is the model's broken.
03:03Unless government actually get real and realise that the level of VAT,
03:09the level of rates and the level of taxation just doesn't work,
03:15we'll devastate a unique product.
03:18Because Northern Ireland is food and beverage offer.
03:21It's world class.
03:22And I don't say that as somebody who's never been around the world.
03:25It really is.
03:27And it's something we have to look after and protect.
03:29I suppose the thing for me as a business owner
03:31and as somebody that lives in Northern Ireland,
03:34I sort of feel like because the government didn't exist for so long
03:38and Westminster has sort of heavied on Northern Ireland,
03:41put a lot of the weight onto us to pick up after COVID
03:44in comparison to what the rest of the UK is doing.
03:47And I'll say to you, Colin,
03:48and this is a huge part of why we're doing this,
03:50we don't want any special treatment.
03:52We just want to be treated the same as the rest of the UK,
03:54get the same rates relief,
03:56get the VAT decreases that everybody else,
03:58even in the Republic of Ireland, is getting.
04:00Do you think it's fair to say that because we were unrepresented for so long,
04:04that is a major reason as why we're struggling so much now?
04:07There is part of that,
04:09because obviously we've only got a government back in Northern Ireland
04:12and its big focus has been on public sector issues,
04:15health, all of the bits, and mechanics go there.
04:18And then all the wage increases sucked up any extra money they have,
04:22which actually but unfairly meant that if we look at GV Westminster,
04:27actually a year ago, this now will be the second year it's in place,
04:30a year ago decided that they realised hospitality was challenged
04:36and gave a 75% rate reduction.
04:39Now that money that proportionately we get,
04:42it's called the Barnett Consequential,
04:44came to Northern Ireland and just had gone out the big black hole.
04:48And that's extra money that they wouldn't have got
04:51if Westminster hadn't decided hospitality needed help.
04:55If hospitality in GV needs help, we need help.
04:59That money should have been used.
05:01It wouldn't have given us the 75% rate reduction that England have seen
05:06because we have a lot smaller businesses.
05:08But even if it was enough and passed on to 50%,
05:11that would have saved restaurants because it's that final line.
05:16And it's those things that I find really frustrating.
05:19It's not money that was already in the pot,
05:21it was additional money that came and those should be passed on.
05:25If a restaurant, we talked about London,
05:27if a restaurant in London needs help, we need it more.
05:30Yeah, of course, absolutely.
05:32I suppose one of the biggest things for me that was a shock
05:35was obviously you'd sent me through some facts and figures
05:38and you'd actually done sort of a diagram of a rateable value in England
05:43and a rateable value in Northern Ireland.
05:45Could you just sort of explain how that would work for here?
05:48If you actually take, because rateable value is what our London Property Service
05:53is about to say what your rates are based on.
05:56We've done a table where if you compare rates, direct comparison,
06:01we actually have premises here that are paying 40,000 or 50,000 a year in rates
06:08and in England it's seven.
06:11And indeed there's cases where we've been paying significant rates here
06:14and there'll be none in England because we haven't got that rate support.
06:18And I do recognise that Northern Ireland Assembly
06:20has put in small business rate relief and we welcome that.
06:23But it's minuscule compared to what the rest of the United Kingdom is getting
06:28and it's also not targeted.
06:30So, you know, a premise here with the turnover and it sounds, again, complicated,
06:36£15,000 rateable value, we get 20% off the rates.
06:41But that goes to everybody.