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Friday 14 April 2017

Brexit: and small seaside towns attracting seasonal staff

The British Hospitality Association has already made its position clear - that Brexit is going to be tricky for them:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and an uncertain future for the hospitality industry
Futures Forum: Brexit: and catering, construction and care sectors getting ready

Whilst the likes of big town Plymouth has the resources to bring in the tourists 
Plymouth is plotting a 2020 tourism boom | Plymouth Herald

... and Exeter has big names to promote prestigious projects
Chef Michael Caines highlights importance of Express & Echo Business Awards - Enter now | Devon Live

... the Telegraph reports on how smaller towns will find it much more difficult:

British workers for British jobs is a 'fallacy', industry leaders warn

Szu Ping Chan 9 APRIL 2017 • 7:11PM

Businesses across the UK have warned that tighter immigration controls will weaken the nation’s global standing, describing suggestions that British workers could simply replace EU nationals as a “fallacy”.

Industry groups representing hundreds of thousands of businesses have told the House of Lords economic affairs committee that restrictions on foreign staff in workplaces such as hospitals, universities and factories would hit business and the wider economy.

More than two dozen written submissions to the committee's inquiry on Brexit and the labour market urged policymakers to maintain a flexible system after the UK leaves the EU.

The 46,000-members British Hospitality Association (BHA) sounded the alarm over a “perfect storm” in coming years as higher inflation hits consumers’ wallets at a time when the sector is adapting to a higher minimum wage, greater pension costs because of auto-enrolment and other taxes such as the apprenticeship levy.

“That our industry can simply pay higher wages to attract British workers is therefore a fallacy, as businesses within the hospitality industry are already operating within incredibly tight profit margins,” its submission said.​

The British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions (BALPPA), which counts Alton Towers-owner Merlin Entertainments as a member, said there were “significant issues” related to attracting staff to seasonal roles.

“The often small local populations of seaside towns relative to the large visitor numbers in peak seasons means that there are simply not enough people who are UK residents in smaller seaside towns to fill the number of seasonal vacancies,” it said.


Teignmouth Pier in Devon. Business groups said the UK relied on foreign workers that could not simply be substituted with UK-born staff CREDIT: GETTY

Others warned that some of Britain’s top tourist attractions would be forced to raise prices to cope with higher wage bills.

The City of London Corporation said this could “damage perceptions of the UK as a friendly and welcoming tourist destination”.

The corporation also said restrictions on EU workers in the tourism industry would make it “difficult to recruit replacements with the same language skills from within the UK workforce”.


British workers for British jobs is a 'fallacy', industry leaders warn
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