Steve Lomas

Chairman & CEO of Deben Inns Ltd Running 8 busy pub/restaurants in and around Woodbridge, Suffolk.

[City A.M. @CityAM]

‘Tipping point’: CBI boss slams £345bn business tax burden amid ‘cost of doing business’ crisis https://t.co/EzEak5dXbU

[Kate Nicholls OBE @UKHospKate]

Hospitality has so much potential - to create jobs, to drive high street regeneration and economic growth. But it is held back by tax - the most highly taxed sector of the economy

Now the sector is united that #VATsTheProblem. A new sector-wide campaign, spearheaded by Tom Kerridge, is calling for hospitality VAT to be reduced from 20% to 10% - the single biggest lever the Government can pull to unleash potential. So let’s make the Sunmer’s VAT cut the start. Sign the petition today 👇

https://t.co/IW5iwiWaFk

[Steve Perez @StevenJGPerez]

The glass bottle tax threatening to shatter Britain
https://t.co/ft9UPRzvgc

Everyone is talking about the “glass bottle tax”, but very few people have even heard of EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility.

For many businesses, particularly pubs, bars, restaurants and hospitality operators, EPR has already become a huge  cost. In many cases, these businesses are effectively paying twice for waste collection and recycling.

And if you think that’s bad, wait until the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) arrives.

Under DRS, consumers will pay a 20p deposit (plus VAT) on every eligible can and bottle purchased, regardless of the size of the container. To reclaim that deposit, containers must be returned through reverse vending machines or collection points.

Consumers will be pushed towards larger containers to minimise the number of deposits they pay.
Hospitality businesses will face additional administration, storage and handling costs.
We and other drinks  manufacturers are already reconsidering their packaging formats

These policies were conceived under the Tories by figures such as Michael Gove, and have since been enthusiastically adopted by Labour 

#Hospitality #Pubs #Restaurants #DRS #EPR #Recycling #FoodAndDrink #BusinessCosts #Packaging #UKBusiness

[Steve Lomas @547spl]

Absolutely this 👇

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:

- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly

Blair basically says all that.

The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:

- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs

None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it

Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.

Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

[Paul Hutcheon @paulhutcheon]

The Daily Record’s splash - Nicola Sturgeon as Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

[Tom Harris 🇬🇧 @MrTCHarris]

"I once spent £400,000 of other people's money on jewellery, cosmetics and a campervan and my wife didn't know anything about it."

[Claire Coutinho @ClaireCoutinho]

It’s almost beyond belief, but yes, Labour’s energy policy is to shut down our own domestic oil and gas industry whilst directly funding Putin’s war machine instead.

On Tuesday, while Labour MPs were voting to ban new British oil and gas licences, behind the scenes the Government quietly announced that it was easing sanctions on Russian oil.

Why? Because by shutting down British production, Miliband and Starmer are making us more reliant on foreign imports.

As Kemi Badenoch rightly said at Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour think oil from Russia is acceptable, but oil from Aberdeen is not.

We are in the extraordinary position of Ukraine’s sanctions chief criticising our country, whilst UK officials brief out that the fault lies with Starmer and Miliband for being asleep at the wheel as UK energy supplies have been put increasingly under strain.

Here’s the problem. Production is not the same as consumption.

If you shut down our means of making fuel, it doesn’t mean we need any less. All it does is make us more reliant on foreign regimes for that very same fuel.

What’s worse is that this fuel will almost certainly have lower environmental standards and produce more emissions as it is shipped across the world to get here.

We lost a third of our oil refineries last year. We have just four left. By the end of the Parliament we could have zero as they are being forced out of existence thanks to an onerous Carbon Tax and high energy costs.

Some of our refineries are spending more on the Government’s Carbon Tax – which doubled last year under Ed Miliband – than on their entire wage bill.

Guess who doesn’t face this crushing tax? The Indian refineries which are at the centre of the current storm.

That’s what lifting the sanctions is allowing in: jet fuel and diesel from these refineries which, unlike our own, use Putin’s oil and have twice the emissions because, unlike our own, they are powered by coal.

What kind of climate leadership is this? Where is it leading to? Bankruptcy?

We have to face up to reality. The world is getting more dangerous and other countries like the US, the Middle East and Asia have not put punishing carbon taxes on their own industry.

They are not shutting down their oil and gas industries – in fact, they are doing everything they can to maximise their own energy supplies.

However, this is the logical conclusion of Ed Miliband’s plans. If you place higher burdens on our industry than other countries, then British production will decline.

That does not mean we will need any less oil, gas, jet fuel, chemicals or plastics, we will just become more reliant on foreign regimes over whom we have no control.

There is an alternative. But it requires a government prepared to abandon Ed Miliband’s zealotry and back our own domestic production instead.

We need to repeal the Climate Change Act, axe the Carbon Tax, Get Britain Drilling, double down on nuclear and make electricity cheap. That’s the plan that the Conservatives put forward on Tuesday - but the one that Labour MPs rejected.

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

🧵The "Energy Independence Bill" just mentioned in the King's Speech is something of a bombshell.
Why?
Because it compels the govt to rally Parliament behind fresh legislation to ban new North Sea oil/gas licences (this has NOT been written into law yet).
This is a v big deal!

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

British Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton tells the Guardian that he's opening restaurants abroad to subsidise his UK venues because of high UK taxes.

"The UK is tough," he said. “I have restaurants that are losing money. We are not asking for handouts, we are asking for a fair chance to stay alive.”

“The tax on hospitality in the UK is the highest in Europe. Ireland VAT is 9% we are 20%, hospitality in Ireland is booming,” Atherton pointed out.

[Claire Coutinho @ClaireCoutinho]

Norway just announced 70 new blocks of oil and gas exploration, including in the North Sea.

Meanwhile, just over the border on the British side of the North Sea, Ed Miliband tells us we’ve got nothing left so he HAS to ban new licences.

Same basin. Same geology.

Madness.

[Sir Tom Hunter @SirTomHunter]

A 481% increase in business rates, from £111,000 to £645,000 a year. Hearing this from Kevin Martin, Managing Director of MML Leisure, shows the reality facing hospitality.

These are the kinds of costs that make it harder for businesses to keep going.

[Sedd @SeddSezz]

🚨Two UK pub chains axed along with 3,500 jobs amid rising taxes

Whitbread, which owns both Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, plans to close all 197 of its restaurant sites.

CEO Dominic Paul said the decision followed “significant cost increases”, which includes higher employer National Insurance contributions and business rates.

Reeves' relentless pursuit of businesses' money is ruining our economy!

Rachel Reeves is decimating business and jobs.

[Cut My Tax @CutMyTaxUK]

39 eco­nom­ies have lowered energy taxes in response to increased oil & gas prices, reports the FT. But Britain is not one of them.

Ger­many has cut fuel duties by €1.6bn & Spain has reduced energy VAT by €3.5bn.

But in Britain Labour is actually set to increase fuel taxes by 8p a litre.

[Alan Smith @AlanJLSmith]

The managed decline continues unabated.

[Financial Times @FT]

UK taxes on wages rose more than in any other rich country in 2025, says report https://t.co/EA3qI2y7I2

[David Davis MP @DavidDavisMP]

SAS resignations should alarm the Government. When your best soldiers walk, you have failed in your duty of care.

This is what lawfare against our soldiers looks like. Years of inquiries, no closure for victims, and our troops treated as suspects for life.

You cannot build up our forces on a foundation of fear. No young recruit will sign up if the reward is a retirement spent in courtrooms.

Our soldiers are held to the highest standards in combat. It is time the state held itself to the highest standards in justice.

https://t.co/ZpDi7EVUwD

[Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW]

The U.K. explained in two headlines.

[Luke Johnson @LukeJohnsonRCP]

Meanwhile the UK is doing the opposite with the Renters Rights Act. Watch supply decline and rents climb.

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Keir Starmer’s week involved:

Being mocked for trying to take credit for the US-Iran ceasefire.

Being forced to bin the Chagos deal. Another humiliating U-turn.

I’ve now lost count of how many U-turns we’re on but it’s more than 12! What Starmer said in opposition. 👇🏼