Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she plans to take to support the (a) stability and (b) off-season resilience of the hospitality workforce.

The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector.

The Government is committed to ending one-sided flexibility ensuring that all jobs provide a baseline of security and predictability, which includes ending exploitative zero hours contracts. We will deliver this commitment through two measures: a right to guaranteed hours, where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period and new rights to reasonable notice of shift, with proportionate payment for shifts cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice. These additional rights and protections will support stability and off-season resilience for hospitality workers.

In addition, as part of Get Britain Working, and in partnership with UKHospitality, the Government is expanding a Hospitality Sector Work-based Academy Programme pilot to 26 areas, which will help fill vacancies in the hospitality industry.

The Government has been clear that the best way to support workers is to stimulate growth, and we are implementing a number of initiatives to achieve this. For example, we established the Licensing Taskforce and will soon issue call for evidence on a National Licensing Policy Framework which will set out national direction for licensing authorities to consider economic growth and cultural value. The English Devolution Bill will protect businesses from upward only rent clauses, and we are introducing a strong new ‘Community Right to Buy’ to help communities safeguard valued community assets.

Recognising the important role the hospitality sector plays in the visitor economy, the Government has set an ambitious goal to grow inbound tourism to 50 million visitors annually by 2030. To help achieve this, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has established a new Visitor Economy Advisory Council, which is currently helping to co-create a Visitor Economy Growth Strategy, due to be published in the autumn.