VAT cut, £10,000 voucher, freeze on stamp duty, all expected in today's mini-budget!

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What does the new budget mean for the Hospitality and leisure industry?

With the 11th of March's emergency budget to fight against the coronavirus seeming a lifetime ago, we expect that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be announcing his summer budget (dubbed as the mini-budget) today at around 12:30pm (viewable on the BBC, however, we struggled to find a specific time).

With buzzwords like Vat cut, £500 vouchers, stamp duty freeze, £5000 green vouchers, being thrown around what can we expect to find out from today's budget and how will it affect us as business owners.

VAT cut:

It's expected across many different sources that the Vat will be cut on a temporary basis. The amount has not been defined, however, any Vat cut is a big boost to the high street as it means more cash through the door. We do not yet know if this will be aimed at just the hospitality and leisure industry, or if other sectors will be included. We will find out more later on today.

If you consider that the current VAT is %20, by even reducing it by 5% this means each customer is now worth an extra 5% to a restaurant or retailer. This is to help combat the social distancing laws that have been applied.

On top of this, it's expected that the next three months VAT payments will be deferred until next year, meaning there will be more cash in the system.

Jobs Jobs Jobs,

This is one of the major focuses that Sunak is focusing on. With national insurance payments expected to be frozen for a period of time, saving on average £2400 per employee, this is one of the major tools the government will be used to encourage people not to reduce the size of their workforce, as Sunak tries to prevent the 2 million unemployed by Christmas.

On top of this, it's expected that the government will be launching a new scheme for 18-24 year olds leaving education. The scheme is based on each student getting extra support in areas like maths, English, CV writing all whilst working on an intern basis with companies to give them real work experience. To encourage businesses to do this, there is expected to be a £1000 bonus for each student a business brings on-board.

Additionally, it's expected an injection of £32 million into the jobcentres, to fund frontline staff to help with the rapid increase in unemployment across the country.

The arts expect to have a £1.6 billion package of loans and grants to help save the industry and invest in new technology.

Already virtual events are becoming more and more popular, with artists creating virtual gigs from the comfort of their homes. The worry is that the art industry will be left behind so a portion of the package will be aimed at developing technologies within the arts to allow people to virtually see museums as well as their favourite bands.

With the doubt around when events will be allowed back to normal if ever it's crucial the arts industry diversify itself to future proof itself. Otherwise, a lot of the venues we know and love today will simply disappear.