Salon Employers Association founder and salon owner Toby Dicker spoke to Kay Burley just now about the budget. He says the initial reaction is shellshock: “It is much, much, much, worse than we ever thought it could be.”
Dicker says his business has been hit to the tune of £127,000, in particular by the 1.2% hike in Employer NICs which affect hairdressing and beauty five times more than traditional retail. Thanks to the higher proportion of wage costs…
The business owner broke down before going in on bureaucrats in government:
“They kicked me out of meetings for asking polite questions about these things. I asked very very polite questions and I was thanked for my help and told to go away. And I’m the only person in those meetings who runs a business. All we’re asking for now is let this administration please sit down with us for half a day. Let us explain what it is you’ve lost. A billion pounds already from 45,000 people leaving employment in the last five years.”
He spelt out that the tax hikes mean “our industry is totally done, they have no choice now. They’re just going to say ‘We have to go into this gig economy, we have to get rid of all our apprentices, we can’t afford it.’” Incidentally Labour is targeting the gig economy for decimation too…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”