Hair and Beauty Sector: Government Policy

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms McVey. I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez) on securing this debate and articulating so comprehensively the issues that the hair and beauty sector face. I share her concern and frustrations, and those of the sector.

The hair and beauty industry contributes £5.8 billion to the UK economy. It is not just about how people look; it is important for our high streets, for individuals and for communities, yet the Government seem to insist on seeing the sector driven into the ground. Since the Chancellor’s spring statement, I have received messages almost daily from businesses across my constituency that are seriously concerned about their future. This is existential.

Just this week, a small salon owner who has been in business for over 27 years got in touch with me and said that this is the most challenging period that she has ever experienced. The Government’s changes to employer national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage will see labour costs for an average small salon in my Gosport constituency rise by over £25,000. That is completely unsustainable; as my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster said, it forces people into the black economy or out of business altogether.

Only recently, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions set out her Government’s welfare reforms, arguing that they are aimed at incentivising people currently in receipt of benefits back into work and secure employment. But I would love to hear from the Minister how he thinks that tallies with the closure of small businesses in our communities, and the redundancies that will result. On top of that, the Government’s actions are set to make 1,000 apprenticeships across the country unaffordable, closing the door to young talent and diminishing training and employment opportunities. I heard from one local barber who has trained apprentices for years; he has now said that the Government’s changes mean he will not be able to afford to train another apprentice.

Businesses will suffer. Female-led businesses in particular will suffer, as well as female work opportunities. Communities will suffer, and in the end the Government will see declining tax receipts. Will the Minister admit that his party made a mistake, and set out how he will communicate with the Treasury to attempt a U-turn? I do not think that anyone on the Opposition Benches would blame him if his party took that sensible step. On Monday I will be hosting a roundtable for all the hair and beauty salons across my constituency, and I would love to know what the Minister’s message is to them.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Gareth Thomas)]

In the usual way, let me begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez) on securing this debate. Let me say at the outset that, as in all the debates that I am privileged to participate in, her and in the main Chamber, there are points in this debate for many other Government Departments as well as my own to consider. I am happy to make sure that those Departments have heard the different insights—let me put it in those diplomatic terms—offered by Members in this debate.

As well as hearing from the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster, we heard from the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), my hon. Friends the Members for Ribble Valley (Maya Ellis) and for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles), the hon. Members for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas), for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage), for Strangford (Jim Shannon), for South Northamptonshire (Sarah Bool) and for Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti), and the hon. Member for Chippenham (Sarah Gibson)—the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats—and the hon. Member for West Worcestershire (Dame Harriett Baldwin).

Let me begin by responding to a couple of the points that came out in the speech by the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster. I also take this opportunity to commend her and other hon. Members for the support they have shown for hair and beauty businesses across the UK, including in their constituencies.

While I was researching in preparation for this debate, I noticed that the hon. Lady ran a campaign to highlight the very best salons in her area so that they could be nominated for the British Hairdressing Awards. I do not know whether Wyndham Hair was one of those that she nominated, but I certainly wish it well in the coming months.

It is very important that we continue to champion this sector as individual constituency MPs, because of the significance that hair and beauty businesses have to our economy, our high streets and all our daily lives. Many Members have asked about the extent to which the Government engage with the hair and beauty sector, and I can confirm that I regularly meet the sector to understand its views and concerns. The very first business that I visited on my appointment was the excellent Pall Mall Barbers, founded by the remarkable Richard Marshall; he could not read or write when he started in the industry, and he now runs some eight stores in central London and New York.

As well as visits, those conversations with the sector include holding roundtables with key representatives of the industry, the next of which is due next month. I think those are important because the hair and beauty sector is one of the industries that I would gently suggest has been neglected for too long over the last decade. Economically, the industry contributes some £25 billion to the UK economy and employs over 550,000 people. Hair and beauty businesses, as Members have rightly set out, are found on every high street and in every town and village in the UK. They are essential for pulling people to the high street and help to generate the footfall that keeps other local businesses there.

However, it is true that the contribution of the industry is far more than an economic one, and the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster also rightly drew that out in her contribution. It is an industry that should be championed for its female entrepreneurship, for the opportunity it brings to people from all backgrounds, and for its role, on occasion, in combating mental health challenges. For example, over 80% of hair and beauty workers are women, and almost of 90% of businesses in the sector are owned by women. Almost half of all jobs in the sector are in areas with traditionally high levels of unemployment, which I think underlines the contribution that the sector makes in getting people into work and into an exciting and creative career path.

Whether it is getting a fresh haircut, a massage or even just chatting to their beauty therapist, many people relish the conversations that their local salons offer. I am not sure there is much that a beauty therapist in Harrow West could do for me, but I certainly value the conversations and skill of the barbers at Paul’s in north Harrow in my constituency.

In short, hair and beauty businesses are a vital pillar of our high streets and communities. I recognise that it has been an exceptionally challenging decade for high street businesses, and that includes the hair and beauty sector. The pandemic, followed by the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates, forced many hair and beauty businesses into high levels of debt, depleted cash reserves and reduced profit margins.

Opposition Members may not like to hear this, but the Government inherited a very challenging fiscal position, so we had to make some very difficult decisions on tax, spending and welfare at the autumn Budget. Some of the measures in the Budget have concerned the industry, but I believe that those decisions are important for delivering long-term stability and, in time, and even more significantly, economic growth. Many hair and beauty businesses will benefit from some of the other measures that the Chancellor announced.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage]

It is entirely predictable that the Minister is trying to push the blame on to the previous Government for some of his Government’s decisions. Does he not agree that actually this is such a retrograde step? As a number of Members have tried to explain, what he is seeing from these small businesses is a decrease in the tax take and a decrease in employment opportunities. At a time when his Government have bet the house on growth, all he is seeing is a decline in growth. Surely that is a decision, not a position that he has been forced into, and it is a retrograde step.

[Gareth Thomas]

I would have thought that the hon. Lady would welcome the measures we took in the Budget to protect the smallest businesses. We increased the employment allowance so that almost 1 million employers pay no national insurance contributions at all. More than half of employers will see no change or gain from that package, and that includes many hair and beauty businesses, as the vast majority of them are micro-sized.