Hospitality Sector

Chris McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Michael Payne (Gedling) (Lab)]

The hospitality businesses across Gedling are more than just places to eat and drink; they are the backbone of our community and the beating heart of our high streets. From Carlton to Arnold, Mapperley to Netherfield and Burton Joyce to Bestwood Village, those businesses make Gedling a great place to live, work and socialise. To every café owner, chef, pub landlord and staff member, and to all our small businesses, I say thank you. Their hard work keeps our towns and villages alive and our local economy moving.

Just last week, I was proud to welcome the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones), to Gedling to meet some of our fantastic small businesses—many of them in hospitality. At Mapperley Top, we held a roundtable in La Zenia, a tapas restaurant that opened a year ago—I send huge congratulations to Lucy and her brilliant team on their first year of business. My right hon. Friend also heard directly from Copper, Steve’s Bar, Deli-icious and Coosh bakery. In Arnold, we met the passionate teams at Cleo’s deli, Taste First, the Empress, Chambers butchers and Paradise café. I thank my right hon. Friend for visiting and listening to Gedling’s fantastic small businesses, and congratulate him on his new role as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister.

May I also take this opportunity to congratulate the Woodlark Inn in Lambley, and its landlady, Emma, on recently being named one of the best 500 pubs in England by The Telegraph? Over the summer, I had the brilliant opportunity to enjoy a pint at the Abdication in Daybrook, the Four Bells Inn in Woodborough, the Waggon and Horses in Redhill—my local—and the Bread and Bitter at Mapperley Top, among the many other brilliant pubs in Gedling.

I will always fight the corner of Gedling’s many amazing small businesses. That is why, last year, I launched my own annual small business awards to celebrate small businesses throughout Gedling. With so many amazing businesses across Carlton, Netherfield, Burton Joyce and beyond in the wider Gedling area, our door is always open to Government Ministers who wish to come and listen and support our local small business community.

[Chris McDonald (Stockton North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is doing an amazing job of talking about the importance of small hospitality businesses to the local community. Does he agree that that extends beyond economic value to their value more generally? The Golden Smog, a friendly family pub in my constituency, supports an inclusive basketball team and has raised £700,000 from its annual “pALEgrimage”—it is like a pilgrimage but involves ale, so it is even better. Will he join me in congratulating that pub?

[Michael Payne]

I congratulate the Golden Smog on its initiative. I look forward to having a pint there with my hon. Friend next time I am in his constituency.

Gedling has nearly 3,000 businesses, 98% of which are small or micro. Retail and hospitality alone support over a quarter of the jobs in my constituency. Those are not just numbers; they represent livelihoods, families and futures. That is why I welcome the Labour Government stepping in where the last Conservative Government left a cliff edge. Instead of pulling the rug out from under small businesses, we are providing a lifeline: a 40% business rate relief, targeted where it is needed most. Labour does not turn its back on small businesses; we back them. More than 10,000 pubs and bars shut under the Conservatives. By contrast, this Labour Government are acting: permanent business rate cuts from 2026; high-street rental auctions; and a ban on unfair rent clauses—real measures to make our high streets revive and thrive.

The Conservative motion mentions “catastrophic choices”, but Conservative Members should take a long, hard look in the mirror. On their watch, inflation peaked at 11.1% in October 2022, and food inflation hit 19% by March 2023. [Interruption.] I can hear chuntering on the Opposition Benches, but those inflation levels did not just hit household budgets; they scarred small businesses in Gedling and across the country.