Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on trends in the level of employment in the hospitality sector in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2024 forecast, which considers the impact of all the Budget measures, expects the employment level to increase from 33.1 million in 2024 to 34.3 million in 2029.

The Autumn Budget 2024 introduced measures that benefit the hospitality sector. Cutting alcohol duty on qualifying draught products represents an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year and is equivalent to a 1p duty reduction on a typical strength pint. On business rates, for 2025-26, the government will provide a 40 per cent discount to Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) properties up to a cash cap of £110,0000 per business and has frozen the small business multiplier. This will save the average pub, with a rateable value (RV) of £16,800, over £3,300 in 2025. From 2026-27, the government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for RHL properties with an RV below £500,000 .