Jamie Oliver has accused the government of strangling British businesses through punishing levels of taxation.
The celebrity chef warned that the tax environment for hospitality businesses would have detrimental consequences. “If you just batter the entrepreneurs, you’re going to get nothing,” he told Times Radio. “This island will become less and less important, less and less relevant very quickly.”
Oliver added: “There is a lack of understanding of the chemistry of what a bubbling, buoyant, optimistic, aspirational cool country called Britain looks like.”
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His comments follow growing alarm among business leaders over the impact of recent tax changes on the hospitality industry, which faces soaring costs from increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and, crucially, a lower threshold at which they kick in, along with rises in the national minimum wage and higher business rates.
Oliver said the government must create sufficient incentives for risk-taking if Britain was to maintain a breeding ground for growing businesses. “There needs to be enough fat in the game for people to take risk — and the association with risk and then innovation and creativity and brands … that can be amplified and grown,” he said.
He criticised the UK tax system for failing to distinguish between multinational conglomerates and family-run businesses. “What’s interesting is the tax system and the government see no difference between, say, Domino’s or Starbucks and Linda and Paul down the road that run a small independent sandwich shop,” he said, adding that the smaller hospitality entrepreneurs are “being chocked out”.
Oliver, whose chain of Italian-themed restaurants fell into administration in 2019, announced at the end of last year plans to revive the Jamie’s Italian brand under a franchise partnership with Brava Hospitality Group, the owner of Prezzo.
Jamie’s Italian in LisbonLuis Boza/NurPhoto/Getty Images
This month John Vincent, the co-founder of Leon, accused the government of “totally killing the restaurant industry”. Vincent, who last year bought back Leon from Asda before closing 22 of its restaurants as part of a restructuring plan, has been a vocal critic of the government, claiming it imposes excessive tax burdens on restaurants.
When Leon filed for administration, he told the BBC: “Today, for every pound we receive from the customer, around 36p goes to the government in tax, and about 2p ends up in the hands of the company. It’s why most players are reporting big losses.”