Tuesday 14 July 2026 4:55 pm
Tom Kerridge has backed Burnham over his support for pubs and restaurants
No good restaurant or pub has ever been run by accountants, celebrity chef Tom Kerridge told City AM as he pushes for a VAT cut for hospitality firms. The TV personality and restaurateur has spearheaded lobbying efforts for the government to slash VAT for hospitality companies, a move which he says would offer the struggling industry vital breathing space.His ‘VAT’s The Problem’ campaign claims that the UK’s hospitality firms should benefit from a similar rate of value-added tax to their competitors in France, Italy and Spain, where pubs, bars and restaurants are charged 10 per cent. But these efforts have been criticised by tax expert Dan Neidle, who said the tax break could cost as much as £12.4bn – which would need to be funded by tax hikes elsewhere.Kerridge hit back at claims that his campaign for a tax break is fiscally irresponsible. He told City AM: “No successful business has ever been built on the accountant.”“Businesses are not built on tax experts. Communities don’t operate on tax experts. And that’s not even a pleasant title, that shows you what that sort of person is.“They’re looking for numbers and they’re looking for issues and a problem, as opposed to growth.”‘It’s about the survival of your local pub’Neidle claimed cutting VAT would mainly benefit the large hospitality firms. McDonald’s would save as much as £432m under the changes, while pub owner Mitchells & Butlers and Premier Inn owner Whitbread could gain £246m and £238m respectively.Kerridge said these conglomerates would take huge sums from a cut to VAT because “they’ve worked really hard to get that point”.“If you look at Gail’s, that was a small bakery called the Bread Factory that operated selling bread to Michelin star restaurants that has built a business and floated on the high street, [and] and then works very well,” he said.
