MAGAZINE

So, the government’s much-anticipated spending review has finally arrived, and though it appears to have been fairly well received generally (by this government’s standards anyway), there was less obvious enthusiasm coming from hospitality. The big headlines of relevance to the sector were the extension of the free school meals provision (see pages 6 and 22), as well as, slightly more tangentially, the promise to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers.

UKHospitality’s Kate Nicholls (pages 14 and 58) delved deeper, however, saying: “Thriving high streets and hospitality are absolutely essential to the government’s mission of renewing Britain and there were some announcements in the spending review that can contribute to that ambition. Significant investment into skills, development and apprenticeships should be accessible to hospitality businesses, and we’re encouraged by the potential for improvements to regional transport to benefit venues, consumers and workers alike.”

She then added the caveat: “It remains the case that the overwhelming challenge holding back hospitality from meeting its potential is the current tax burden imposed upon it.”

The latest Contract Catering Tracker from CGA by NIQ, Bidfood and, yes, UKHospitality was unequivocally enthusiastic, though. It reported an incredible 9.5% year-on-year increase for the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year. With this meaning that sales have now risen in every quarter since the end of the pandemic in mid-2021, contract catering certainly seems to be on the right track.