Salon owner campaigns for VAT cut as pandemic bites
The owner of a prestigious Sunderland hair salon who fears for the future of her industry is backing a national campaign for support.
Susan Hall is owner and director of Reds Hair and Beauty salon in East Herrington, one of Wearside’s longest-serving and most popular salons, and is also a board member of The National Hair and Beauty Federation (NHBF), who has forecasted 41% of UK hair salons (about 20,000 businesses) would not survive the Covid pandemic.
She’s backing a national campaign for the beauty industry to have its VAT cut, after a similar reduction was made to help the struggling hospitality sector.
Susan said: “Tens of thousands of people employed in the sector face the prospect of losing their jobs. More than 80% of those employed in the hairdressing sector are women, most of them under 35, so the continuing closure of salons is bad news for women and young people.
“And yet we feel we are a forgotten industry. While the hospitality sector quite rightly and understandably had its VAT cut from 20% to 5% to help struggling pubs and restaurants, the hairdressing industry has had no support.”
In response to the growing crisis The British Beauty Council launched a Chop the VAT campaign which called on the Government to cut salons’ VAT bills to 5%, in
line with the help the hospitality industry has received. That campaign, which has become a wider Save our Salons campaign, is gathering momentum as the March Budget approaches.
Susan added: “The Covid pandemic has had a truly devastating effect on hairdressing. Salons remain closed and we’re not sure what we will be returning to if we are able to open on the proposed date of April 12.
“But we still have to pay the bills, the overheads of
running brick and mortar salons – and when we return we’ll have additional expense of PPE and social distancing measures. What were traditionally tight margins are now extremely slim – if exist at all.
“Hairdressing is already one of the most heavily-taxed sectors in the UK, with about 30% of every pound that comes into the till being paid in tax. I, and thousands of other salon owners, feel the only solution to long-term recovery is to reduce or abolish our VAT bills.
“The British Beauty Council estimates up to ten per cent of UK salons have already closed because of Covid. It is too late to save these businesses, but it’s not too late to help others battling their way through this crisis.”
As part of her support for the Save our Salons campaign, Susan contacted her MP, Bridget Phillipson.
In a written response, the MP for Houghton and
Sunderland South – and the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury – said she appreciated it was a “hugely challenging time for local businesses like Reds.”
*Reds will be reopening on April 12, unless further restrictions are applied. The salon is expecting to be busy so is introducing a process in which clients who missed an appointment will be rebooked as a priority, and then a firstcome, first-served waiting list will be introduced.
Sunderland’s Public Health director has urged people to stay local for their daily exercise and avoid busy areas as people headed to the coast to enjoy the weekend’s sunny weather.
Pictures taken on Saturday show families enjoying the sunny weather with a walk along the seafront at Roker and Seaburn as the third national lockdown continues.
The restrictions, which were imposed at the start of January, say outdoor exercise should be taken locally, but people can travel a short distance within their own area to do so.
Gerry Taylor, Executive Director of Public Health and Integrated Commissioning at Sunderland City Council, has urged members of the public to stay at home, saying that there is ‘still a long way to go’ in the fight against the virus.
In a statement issued yesterday, she said: “We still have a high number of Covid cases across the city and we are continuing to see people being admitted to hospital and unfortunately people
dying from this disease.
"So while we’re all looking forward to the time when we can get back to something nearer normal, it’s important to remember we’ve still a long way to go and the stay at home guidance remains in place for now.”
She continued: “Every contact between people is an opportunity for the virus to spread.
"That’s why it is so important that everyone continues to stay at home and follow the ‘hands, face, space’ guidance if you do have to go out.
"Stay local for your daily exercise and if the place where you’re going looks busy, think about a different time when it might be less
busy and it’s easier to stay two metres apart.
"It’s really important we don’t lose sight of the sacrifices we’ve all made in the last year, and continue to do everything we can collectively, to stop the virus spreading.”
The scenes at Sunderland’s coast come only days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson explained the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown on Monday, February 22.
The Prime Minister said he is “very optimistic” that all England’s Covid-19 restrictions will be able to be fully lifted on June 21, but warned ‘nothing can be guaranteed’.