Restore VAT-free purchasing to let the capital thrive
L
ondon is busy — there isn’t any query about it. Anyone who has visited Soho on the weekend or tried to purchase a pint at a heaving City pub on a Thursday night can vouch for that.
And there are many international voices within the combine because the capital approaches peak vacationer season.
But are there sufficient?
Spending by abroad guests having fun with holidays in London is the proverbial icing on the cake that always make the distinction between pink and black on the backside of the accounts on the finish of the 12 months.
For Theatreland these vacationer {dollars} are extra very important than ever as venues desperately attempt to make up for the vastly difficult darkish years of pandemic.
So the very last thing they want is the Government holding again the variety of folks visiting the capital.
But as Heart of London enterprise chief Ros Morgan, in addition to extremely revered cultural bosses resembling producer Sonia Friedman, and SOLT’s Emma De Souza, clarify on these pages in the present day, that’s precisely what is going on.
The Treasury continues to insist that VAT shopping performs solely a really minor position in London’s international attraction to vacationers. But that isn’t what they’re saying in Paris, Milan and Madrid.
It is like sending out the England cricket workforce to face Australia with solely 10 gamers. Why on earth would you do it if you happen to didn’t should?
The Government has stated it is going to take heed to the “evidence” earlier than making a ultimate determination on the way forward for VAT-free purchasing. It ought to pay heed to the cultural leaders making their case in the present day.