Carryduff Chef Gemma Austin looks at why Belfast restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open

National World - Other Local Sites

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00:00My name's Gem Austin and I am the owner of A Peculiar Tea in Belfast.

00:04Today we are going to be looking into the hospitality industry,

00:07giving you an insight into what it's like to be a business owner,

00:09and give an explanation as to why it is that so many restaurants are closing at the minute.

00:13So Colin, thank you very much for being with us today.

00:17Obviously if you want to tell everybody who you are to start with.

00:21Colin Needle, I work for Hospitality Ulster,

00:23which is the industry body for the hospitality sector in Northern Ireland.

00:27Our role in life is just to represent the industry and help the economy prosper in Northern Ireland.

00:34I suppose the main reason I wanted you to come in today

00:37was I'd obviously listened to some of the facts and figures that you had said on BBC Science

00:43and was really gobsmacked by them, even as a business owner myself.

00:46I think that sometimes we're not really aware of what's going on in the industry

00:50or what's going on in Northern Ireland at all until you hear those facts and figures.

00:55I just thought it would be really important for people across this country

00:59to basically get an understanding of what that is.

01:01Would you mind just sort of sharing some of that with us?

01:03Look, we have huge challenges in Northern Ireland because,

01:06if you just start at the basics, we have the highest energy costs in Europe.

01:11We've got actually the highest business rates in the OECD, never mind in the UK.

01:16If I compare it on a town like Blarn, over 62p in the pound for their rates.

01:23Their city in London is 52p in the pound.

01:26How does that add up?

01:28And then you add in all the extra.

01:30Our disposable income per household is much less.

01:34So we struggle, actually, even when people will say,

01:37oh, you're getting dear.

01:39We struggle to get the price we should get.

01:41Often people will point out, oh, you're as dear as London.

01:45Why wouldn't we be?

01:47We've got higher rates, higher energy costs.

01:50The same are actually often higher wage costs

01:52because we actually do pay a bit better than London in many instances.

01:56We aren't the big sort of chains that just turn out the same thing.

02:03And I'm not knocking them, but they have their place.

02:05So we're not buying at the price.

02:07If you look at a restaurant chain in England,

02:09what they buy at compared to our unique independent offer is much less.

02:13So yes, we're going to be at that price, and that's the real problem.

02:17Yeah, and I think is it maybe a misconception

02:20that people would go to London

02:22and would instantly allow themselves to pay more because they're in London,

02:26but the reality is in Belfast we are now at a stage

02:29where it's more expensive to have a restaurant in Belfast city centre

02:32than in London city centre.

02:34I mean, that's quite frightening.

02:35I think it is.

02:36I mean, for years we've always thought of London as the dearer place.

02:40If you live in London, you get an extra living allowance and stuff on your wage

02:45because it was more expensive.

02:47And for housing and the domestic side of things, yes, it is more expensive.

02:52But to run a business is dearer in Belfast than it is in London.

02:56Yeah, which is quite frightening when you think about it.

02:58It is horrendous.

02:59And I think my worry, to be honest, is the model's broken.

03:03Unless government actually get real and realise that the level of VAT,

03:09the level of rates and the level of taxation just doesn't work,

03:15we'll devastate a unique product.

03:18Because Northern Ireland is food and beverage offer.

03:21It's world class.

03:22And I don't say that as somebody who's never been around the world.

03:25It really is.

03:27And it's something we have to look after and protect.

03:29I suppose the thing for me as a business owner

03:31and as somebody that lives in Northern Ireland,

03:34I sort of feel like because the government didn't exist for so long

03:38and Westminster has sort of heavied on Northern Ireland,

03:41put a lot of the weight onto us to pick up after COVID

03:44in comparison to what the rest of the UK is doing.

03:47And I'll say to you, Colin,

03:48and this is a huge part of why we're doing this,

03:50we don't want any special treatment.

03:52We just want to be treated the same as the rest of the UK,

03:54get the same rates relief,

03:56get the VAT decreases that everybody else,

03:58even in the Republic of Ireland, is getting.

04:00Do you think it's fair to say that because we were unrepresented for so long,

04:04that is a major reason as why we're struggling so much now?

04:07There is part of that,

04:09because obviously we've only got a government back in Northern Ireland

04:12and its big focus has been on public sector issues,

04:15health, all of the bits, and mechanics go there.

04:18And then all the wage increases sucked up any extra money they have,

04:22which actually but unfairly meant that if we look at GV Westminster,

04:27actually a year ago, this now will be the second year it's in place,

04:30a year ago decided that they realised hospitality was challenged

04:36and gave a 75% rate reduction.

04:39Now that money that proportionately we get,

04:42it's called the Barnett Consequential,

04:44came to Northern Ireland and just had gone out the big black hole.

04:48And that's extra money that they wouldn't have got

04:51if Westminster hadn't decided hospitality needed help.

04:55If hospitality in GV needs help, we need help.

04:59That money should have been used.

05:01It wouldn't have given us the 75% rate reduction that England have seen

05:06because we have a lot smaller businesses.

05:08But even if it was enough and passed on to 50%,

05:11that would have saved restaurants because it's that final line.

05:16And it's those things that I find really frustrating.

05:19It's not money that was already in the pot,

05:21it was additional money that came and those should be passed on.

05:25If a restaurant, we talked about London,

05:27if a restaurant in London needs help, we need it more.

05:30Yeah, of course, absolutely.

05:32I suppose one of the biggest things for me that was a shock

05:35was obviously you'd sent me through some facts and figures

05:38and you'd actually done sort of a diagram of a rateable value in England

05:43and a rateable value in Northern Ireland.

05:45Could you just sort of explain how that would work for here?

05:48If you actually take, because rateable value is what our London Property Service

05:53is about to say what your rates are based on.

05:56We've done a table where if you compare rates, direct comparison,

06:01we actually have premises here that are paying 40,000 or 50,000 a year in rates

06:08and in England it's seven.

06:11And indeed there's cases where we've been paying significant rates here

06:14and there'll be none in England because we haven't got that rate support.

06:18And I do recognise that Northern Ireland Assembly

06:20has put in small business rate relief and we welcome that.

06:23But it's minuscule compared to what the rest of the United Kingdom is getting

06:28and it's also not targeted.

06:30So, you know, a premise here with the turnover and it sounds, again, complicated,

06:36£15,000 rateable value, we get 20% off the rates.

06:41But that goes to everybody.

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