Queen’s Speech

Lord Smith of Hindhead Excerpts

Monday 16th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Hindhead (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate on Her Majesty’s gracious Speech. I will limit my comments to those relating to hospitality and, in so doing, I ask your Lordships’ House to take note of my entry in the register of interests.

I welcome the Government’s focus on levelling up and regeneration, and I commend and thank the Government on what was put in place to support hospitality during the Covid pandemic. I can think of no other industry that has benefited more from this much-needed support over the past two years.

While some businesses in the industry have very sadly closed, the vast majority are seeing a return of footfall and consumer confidence as the activities of lockdown and home entertainment are rightly replaced by a society which again socialises together. Peloton is not hitting its sales targets and Netflix subscribers have reduced for the first time. Seeing friends virtually and staying at home can never properly replace going out and meeting up with friends.

I could go through the very long list of support measures that have been put in place, but one important statistic reported by HM Treasury in December last year was that many hospitality businesses emerged with more cash in the bank than they had at the start of the pandemic and net cash deposits for all hospitality businesses rose by £7 billion pounds, £2 billion of which was held by small and medium-sized businesses. Fewer businesses have become insolvent, with insolvencies running 25% lower than pre-pandemic levels. Hospitality accounts for some 9% of all employees and it is the third-largest private sector in the UK, but staff vacancies are currently 50% above pre-pandemic levels.

As an industry, we need to attract more people into understanding that hospitality can be a fantastic career opportunity, where a person can still progress from working behind the bar to having a place at the boardroom table. I was therefore pleased to note the Government’s statement that regeneration and levelling up would be achieved by improving economic innovation to drive growth across the whole country, unleashing the power of the private sector to unlock jobs and opportunity for all.

The Government will improve productivity, boost economic growth, encourage innovation, create good jobs and enhance educational attainment across all parts of the UK. I particularly welcome the phrase that has been employed that levelling up will be achieved by

“a cross-government, cross-society effort”.

Hospitality is capable of helping to drive growth across the nation. It is already doing so in every part of the UK. Every city, town and village offers some form of hospitality and is therefore uniquely placed to assist with the delivery of the Government’s priorities to level up, generating and creating new jobs and enhancing economic strength.

As we have emerged from the Covid pandemic, I think we can all agree that this has been the most extraordinary time in most of our lives and in the recent life of the nation. There will of course be many lessons to be learned. I understand that, in a crisis, people and businesses look to the Government to wrap the arms of the state around them, and I also understand that everyone fights their corner and wants what is best for their business, their sector or their industry, but I believe that hospitality can play a major part in helping the nation to move forward into a post-Covid, post-Brexit economic world, where all parts of the UK will see the benefit of growth and job security and where more people, from whatever background, will feel that they have a stake in the future.