Vat reduction in Budget

Thanks Paul. 

So a 15% reduction in VAT passed on to the public till the end of September.
Lets say a very healthy increase in pitch prices from last year of 5%.
That means this year we should be looking at around a 10% reduction from last year in the cost to the customer..
Al.

dream on.

Micky

The VAT reduction is supposed to help the businesses who haven't been able to trade for months. It is not there to give the customer a cheap holiday / meal out. This said some of the prices being charged this year are outrageous but not suprising given the circumstances.

True, but what about the furlough scheme and grants that have been handed out to these companies..
Regarding outrageous charging, my son and his young family hired a cottage in Dorset during the brief respite from restrictions last year. He decided to book the same place/time this year and was shocked to discover the cost had increased by slightly less than 100%.
Al.

Furlough covers staff wages and the grants are a basic contribution towards overheads to stop companies going bust. Almost all businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector have been pushed to the brink this past 12 months. These government bailouts were a lifeline and many companies will also have taken on significant amounts of debt. 

Unfortunately if we want our campsites, hotels, B&Bs, cinemas, theatres, restaurants and local pubs etc to exist in the future we need to have to be prepared to pay higher prices and do it regularly over the next few years.

The holiday cottage will have lost months of income and possibly no financial support at all if it was a limited company as the directors may not be on payroll so not eligible for furlough and no grants because holiday cottages are often not business rateable. 

During months of lockdown demand has been zero and no matter how cheap their product was they could not sell it. This year the demand is extremely high and therefore prices will follow suit. It is not profiteering, they are trying to cover last year and this years mortgage payments in one season and they have to do this to salvage what they can, for as long as the market will pay inflated prices (next year they won't be able to as everyone will either be skint or off abroad again).

I know most of us pensioners on here haven't suffered much financially, but my son and millions of others who have lost out as you say just can't afford the prices asked, so will vote with their feet.
It's blatant profiteering.
Al.

bikeralw wrote:I know most of us pensioners on here haven't suffered much financially, but my son and millions of others who have lost out as you say just can't afford the prices asked, so will vote with their feet.
It's blatant profiteering.

How are they profiting if the extra they charge in 2021 is only repaying the mortgage payments they had to defer and losses they made in 2020? That is not profiting that is hoping to break even!

Some people may not be able to afford the prices this year but others will and in 2022 the prices for UK holiday cottages will return to normal. As will the prices for motorhomes. 

I can see how it feels unfair to be charged double as a returning customer but this is just a simple demand based economy in action. Personally I think it is outrageous that the holiday cottages and second homes are allowed in the first place when a direct consequence is that it drives young families away from their relatives and where they grew up.

So what you're saying is that it's perfectly acceptable that all the businesses that have had to close can virtually double their prices when they re-open? Pubs, restaurants, campsites etc.
I accept there will be a certain amount of trying it on, profiteering, but if the cottage my son was going after is anything to go by, it's not working, it still has most of summer vacant three weeks after he enquired.
Al.

Yes I am saying it is acceptable in a capitalist democracy. Specifically I am stating that the market will decide the fair rate and if the market thinks it is worth double rates in 2022 then that is fair. Perhaps it is too expensive - time will tell. 

I looked at a campsite in Norfolk the other day and with an awning and a tow car it worked out a few pounds under £100 per night(!) over bank holiday August. Too expensive for me (we normally stay off EHU and basic. £10-15 per night maybe £30 if we want some luxury) so I found somewhere less desirable but at the moment they obviously think they will sell the pitches. As it gets closer to the time they will reduce the rates I'm sure and then you have a situation where some people paying £100 per night and others camped right next to them are paying less for exactly the same thing.

To some people that would not be fair but in a capitalist economy it absolutely is and the market has set two prices. A higher price for those desperate to reserve a premium product when demand is high and a lower price for those who  were prepared to hold out for a discount and risk not being able to buy the product. 

It is no different to people buying games consoles and technology when it first comes out, whilst others wait a year for the product to be discounted, or people paying 10% more for a second hand motorhome in 2021 because demand is higher than supply.

I reckon there will be a lot of people like me who, if we are allowed out will look around for a camp site, sneer at the £100 a night places and find all the £15 a night places are full so will just wander o'er hill and dale and stop for the night wherever they are when dusk falls.

....the same as I always have done. You won't find me paying the same to park on someone's grass as it costs to stay in a Premier Inn. It's cheaper, if we are allowed, to cross the channel. A fortnight at a typical UK camp site is more expensive than the ferry fee plus the free aires all over Europe. The trouble will start if we aren't allowed over there. Thousands of motorhomes will be roaming the overcrowded UK looking for somewhere to stop.

edit: Back to Paulmold's original post, I cannot in my wildest imaginings think that any camp site is going to pass on the VAT reduction. And the big club sites will just do what their head offices tell them to do.