Hospitality Today Oct-Nov 2016 | Page 23

hospitalitytoday.com | 23 about 13% from the EU, according to government data analyzed by Migratory Observatory, a think tank at the University of Oxford. Retail, meanwhile, is the U.K.’s largest private-sector employer, and 15% of workers in retail and related wholesale operations were born abroad, with 6% born in the EU. saw meetings with over 65 Members of Parliament from all political parties. British retailers and restaurateurs are already bracing for higher costs after the government moved to raise the minimum wage in stages through to 2020. One of the allures of certain EU workers is a propensity to work more cheaply than British workers, while employers also see EU migrants as more productive. (This was followed by: 2. Alleviate the impact of National Living Wage; 3. Improve competitiveness and taxation; and 4. Improve local regeneration and investment, particularly in coastal and rural destinations.) About 70% of Eastern European workers earn less than the median earnings of U.K.-born workers, or just over £20,000 ($29,376) a year, according to government data analyzed by the nonpartisan think tank Migration Watch. On 13th September, 150 BHA members took over Parliament for a second year running for the BHA Hospitality and Tourism Day. The annual lobby day The BHA announced four policy priorities for the Hospitality and Tourism Industry with direct asks to the Government - and the first of these priorities was “Ensuring a workforce supply which facilitates growth”. Host of the reception Nigel Huddleston MP discussed the important work the APPG for the Visitor Economy has been conducting over the past year into skills and apprenticeships in the hospitality and tourism industry. Ufi Ibrahim, CEO of the BHA discussed how the industry is responsible for 1 in 5 of all new jobs created in the last parliament and how the industry welcomes over 36 million overseas visitors.