Food and drink was the largest contributor to growth in consumer-facing services in December 2024.
This follows the sector being the biggest driver of economic growth in November 2024 and demonstrates hospitality’s growth potential, says an industry group.
However, UKHospitality is warning that the consistent growth being delivered by the sector will be curbed when £3.4 billion of costs hit the sector in April.
Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of UKHospitality, said:
“We’ve seen over the past few months that hospitality is delivering reliable economic growth, despite the challenging economic circumstances the sector continues to face.
“Hospitality’s resilient growth is something the Government should be backing, but instead it is stunting the sector’s potential by inflicting such damaging costs on businesses.
“Driving growth is rightly the national priority and hospitality can be the vehicle, if the UK Government rethinks its regressive changes to employer NICs.”
