Issues likely to be raised by hotels during the 2017 Election Campaign?

Concerns connected with Brexit are likely to be high on the agenda, with trade bodies such as the British Hospitality Association highlighting issues relating to skills shortages, the increasing costs of food and drink, high tourism VAT and increases in business rates. It is possible that the skills shortage will reach 1m  in 10 years time if EU migration falls to zero from 2019. KPMG support these worries, stressing that ‘hospitality and tourism face major problems in recruitment if there is any major cut in the number of workers allowed to enter from the EU’ Together with securing a level of EU workers the industry has to address the perception of poor working conditions and low wages within the industry inorder to attract a greater workforce from within the UK.

Arranging business events within the UK is attractive at the moment due to the  poor exchange rate abroad but hotels need to be in a position to offer a high level of service. This proposition relies heavily on good, reliable, hardworking and well trained staff and these could be hard to come by in the future depending on the election result and strength of subsequent Brexit negotiations.

We would love to hear your thoughts.