Bob Cotton, Chief executive of the British Hospitality Association spoke to over 120 attendees at Vantis’ annual seminar for members of the Hospitality and Leisure industry at the Commonwealth club in London on 29 March.

Mr Cotton chaired the meeting hosted by Vantis. Other speakers included Peter Davies, PAYE Consultant for Vantis; Vaughn Chown, VAT Consultant at Vantis; Andrew Mathieson, HMRC Trade Sector Consultant for the Hospitality industry and Peter Moody, Leisure and employment consultant at Law firm, Bevan Brittan.

Highlights from Bob Cotton included:

• With the industry facing an estimated 5% increase in costs due to added regulatory requirements, growth was becoming increasingly difficult in an already high risk industry.
• The Hospitality Industry was advised not to make any changes to its tronc operations until new HMRC guidelines were published within the next few months.
• The increase in statutory holidays from 20 to 28 days would affect approximately 600,000 workers in the industry and add an estimated 3% to payroll costs not including the minimum wage increases.
• While welcoming the smoking ban, emphasis was placed on the provision of an exemption for hotel bedrooms and a call was made to ensure that protection was built in for licence holders in public houses and bars in the event of unwarranted smoking.
  

"May I pass on our thanks from the Great Eastern Hotel for such an informative seminar - the speakers were great & although I thought I knew most things about tronc. I learnt lots of new things too & thoroughly enjoyed the morning!"

Diana Mountain, Director of Finance, Great Eastern Hotel