The “voice”
of
independent accommodation providers

On the Bedposts forum we have been discussing the need to use our votes in the forthcoming General Election for the party that has the best interests of this important economic sector at heart, this statement has been put together through a joint effort by some of our Members.

Did you know that the tourism industry is around the fifth largest of the UK’s wealth producing sectors. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than half of the employment (58.2 per cent) and turnover (52.4 per cent) in the UK, so it follows that we make up a very significant proportion of the tourist industry. With the Olympic Games on the horizon, the Government of the day will need to be seen to support the accommodation industry as a whole, and the small provider in particular, if visitors are to leave, after the games, with the best possible impression of Britain as a destination of best choice.

We share the view that recent intensification of the pace of introducing new legislation in our sector has had a deep and lasting detrimental effect. In the last decade we have been bombarded by flawed new regulations that have proved to be inappropriate, disproportionately time-consuming and expensive and/or enforced with unnecessary aggression.

Most of us operate small B&Bs, Guest Houses, and Self Catering Units in or adjacent to our homes, either single-handedly or with little help from others.  We do not enjoy the economies of scale enjoyed by larger operators but we work much closer to the ‘coal-face‘ and are personally involved in every single aspect of our businesses in a way that is impossible for larger establishments. Nevertheless, risks and threats to guests are assessed without regard to these differences, which are judged as the same in our premises as in larger hotel and holiday resort establishments where owners and managers delegate responsibility down several tiers for dozens, or even hundreds, of visitors every day.

We have to find, within limited profits and significant time constraints, funds for sophisticated systems, compliance procedures, audits, statements, certifications, tests, licenses, alarms and protections in a never ending blizzard.  The waste of time, energy and money, not to mention the unnecessary stress, is astonishing. Nothing is added to the guest experience or well-being; in fact much is taken away. We are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the personal service, warm and friendly atmospheres and unique ambience for which the British visitor industry has, rightly, been famous.

In order to assist us in deciding who each of us, as individuals, will vote for, we are writing to a number of parliamentary candidates asking them to tell us what their party will do, if elected, to :-

Reverse the burden of red tape for small businesses;

Encourage tourism development generally;

Avoid knee-jerk reactions that lead to flawed and populist legislation

Consider the impact that legislation has on all sections of the community in order to avoid the unexpected and undesirable consequences (more joined-up thinking, please);

Treat SMEs as individual business owners of consequence

Ensure that only proportionate interpretation is used when enshrining EU directives into British law.

If you would like to support us, please leave a comment.

If you are a small business in another industry that you feel is equally hamstrung, please tell us what difficulties you too face.

Do you think, accepting that the economy is the major issue facing whichever party leads the government from May onwards, that lifting the unnecessary red tape burden on small and medium sized businesses will enable them to prosper, take on more staff and help the country to recover from our current financially depressed state?

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.