The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is urging the government to come up with a new plan for companies in the tourism and hospitality industries that would concentrate on the needs of smaller firms.

The FSB has published a new report titled ‘A Menu for Recovery’, in which it calls on the government to devise a strategy for ensuring that smaller tourism and hospitality firms can keep hold of skilled employees and train new ones. The report suggests that these firms are finding this a challenge in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit.

Among the recommendations this report makes to improve the situation is to reduce the amount that these small firms are required to pay in contributions to National Insurance.

It also argues that keeping the incentive payments for companies that provide placements going beyond the current finish date of July next year would drive greater recruitment of young people into tourism and hospitality jobs.

The report lays bare the financial problems that small companies in these sectors are experiencing, with 77% of them having been forced to assume more debt due to the pandemic. Accountants in Goole or elsewhere can advise small firms about effective debt management.

Additional government support in dealing with this debt is also being called for by the FSB, with its Chair, Mike Cherry, stating that companies were already battling rising business costs before the pandemic, and that this has only made it worse. He added that the report outlined some possible solutions to the problems.