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The boss of one of Britain’s biggest cinema chains has accused the government of attacking the industry and pleaded: ‘Please don’t touch [us] again.’
Tim Richards, the founder and chief executive of Vue, warned of a ‘difficult operating environment’ as firms face grapple with high energy costs, the increase in the minimum wage and the Chancellor’s national insurance tax raid.
Warning that businesses have been ‘squeezed’ and ‘attacked’, he said ministers are ‘hurting the people they’re trying to help’ by making it more expensive to hire staff.
‘The initiatives that the government has taken recently have not been particularly helpful for the leisure sector generally,’ he told the BBC.
'They are driving the costs so high it's making it that much more difficult for the leisure sector in particular to hire as many of the staff as they would like.’
Asked what his message was before the Budget, he added: ‘Please don't touch [us] again.’
The comments came as Rachel Reeves prepares another punishing tax raid to fund her lavish spending plans as the economy flounders.
The Chancellor is scrambling to plug a black hole estimated at somewhere between £30billion and £50billion in the Budget on November 26.
She is now said to be looking at more than 100 tax and spending measures in a desperate bid to make her numbers add up.
The blizzard of measures is set to target the ‘wealthy’ – who according to the Treasury are those on incomes of more than £45,000 a year.
Only those who earn less than this are deemed to be ‘working people’ and will be protected from Labour’s latest tax assault.
There is also mounting concern that the minimum wage is bumping up against starting salaries for graduates at professional services firms such as accountancy and law.
The Chancellor is expected to announce a 4 per cent rise in the minimum wage to £12.70 an hour in the Budget.
That would lift the average salary for a worker on the minimum wage doing a 40-hour-week from £25,376 to £26,416,
Data from the Institute of Student Employers, reported by the Financial Times, shows the lowest graduate salary for roles in finance and professional services is £25,726 while the average is £33,000 and the highest is £65,000.
Industry experts warn that youngsters may be put off taking white-collar professional qualifications, which can leave them in debt, if they can earn just as much elsewhere.
It is also feared that pressure on professional services firms to raise pay to stay ahead of the minimum wage will hit hiring and accelerate automation.
Richards, who opened the first Vue cinema 25 years ago and now has 94 sites in the UK and Ireland, said the chain has ‘done our very best not to pass on’ the extra costs it is facing to customers.
‘We've taken a small hit as a consequence,’ he said.