Cost pressures continue to mount for operators

It’s been close on three years now since I started to hear the words “perfect storm of cost pressures” being uttered by operators and industry commentators. In the period since early 2017 revenues have been fairly flat whilst costs have continued to rise, and there seems little likelihood of respite in the year ahead. At the recent Conservative Party Conference, the Chancellor Sajid Javid set out the government’s intention to tempt low-paid workers to vote Tory in the forthcoming general election by announcing plans to increase the National Living Wage (NLW) to £10.50 an hour, an alarming increase of 28% over five years.