Latest news with #hairdressing
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The closing of a local hair salon tells you why Britain is going bust
On Wednesday, Rachel Reeves will stand up in the House and announce her latest plans for saving the country from bankruptcy. Somehow, she will have to produce plausible remedies for a crisis that seems insoluble: how to deal with catastrophic levels of government debt when there are endless demands for more public spending including a brand new commitment to provide more funding for defence. Having ruled out tax rises that clearly impinge directly on what they call 'working people' – income tax, VAT and employee National Insurance contributions – Labour has made this situation more complicated. But, perversely, they have chosen to make it even worse by pushing many of the most productive contributors to the economy out of business. The Labour Government, by putting supposed ideological solidarity over economic reality, has created the perfect formula for the failure of precisely the business sector which contributes most to national vitality and growth. Let me offer an illustration in the hope that it might prove instructive to the present and any future Chancellor. A hairdressing salon that I know in a prosperous North London neighbourhood closed for good several weeks ago. It had been at its current location for over thirty years and was so popular that it often took days to get an appointment. After lockdown it recovered well with its loyal customers delighted to return. The emergence of the four day working week meant that Fridays became as busy as Saturdays and the salon was humming. So what went wrong? The owner was hit simultaneously by the increases in the minimum wage and employer NICS. Added to ever-increasing energy costs (exacerbated by green levies), this burden finally broke them. Even though they were a well-run thriving business, they could not survive. Sadly all of the junior staff and trainees were laid off. Given the economic climate now, they will struggle to find similar jobs anywhere else so they will not be paying any tax for the indefinite future and will almost certainly have to claim unemployment benefit: a double loss for the Treasury. The salon as a company has gone so it will no longer be paying corporation tax. The senior stylists who have carried on working privately are now self-employed which means they can, perfectly legitimately, claim all their work expenses against tax – so they will pay less income tax than they did under PAYE when they were employees. You get the picture. The net effect of the Government's measures has been to reduce the tax take for their own coffers and increase unemployment among people starting out in their working lives whose chances are further damaged by the ridiculous stipulation that they must have full rights to secure employment from the day they are hired. What happened to one hair salon might not seem all that significant to the nation's future. But this pattern is being repeated in small businesses – particularly the ones that provide employment to young people starting out in working life – in countless numbers. Retail shops, building services and hospitality outlets are cutting staff and failing to hire new recruits because the cost of employing them is back breaking. As a result, they are not expanding and developing their businesses as they might have – and so not contributing to the growth of the economy in the significant way that small businesses, with their inherent dynamism and industriousness, once did. Labour, in its supposed determination to support 'working people' has created a doom loop in which fewer people will be joining the workforce and the consequent reduction in tax revenue will make the government even less able to meet the limitless demands of the welfare system as well as pay off its debts. Needless to say, there have been some obvious winners in the Labour dynamic: public sector employees have had their mouths stuffed with gold not only because Labour is historically inclined to favour the unions which represent them but because they can threaten disruption on a scale that reduces any complaining chorus from the small business sector to an inconsequential squeak. But there is more to it than that, in ideological terms: business generally, and small business in particular, are seen as inherently self-interested enterprises. Because they have been created, developed and run by private individuals in the hope of making a profit, they must be morally suspect and less worthy of support than the services that the state funds and operates for the general good of society. Carry this to its logical conclusion and it becomes admirable to penalise people who want to profit from other people's need for their services in order to pay for the provision of services dispensed 'fairly' (and without profit) by the government. You know where this ends, don't you? The most innovative, resourceful, determined individuals who might have developed new ways of creating real wealth and employing more people in experimental ways have impossible demands put on them which threaten their survival or, at the very least, make their continued existence as difficult as possible. They are encumbered with inflexible employment conditions which might possibly be appropriate for huge public sector organisations but are death to experimental emerging enterprises. Their tax arrangements are made so horrendously complicated and difficult to master that expensive accountancy advice becomes essential. I know self-employed sole traders in the creative industries who would like to enlarge their practice but are terrified of crossing the income threshold that would require VAT registration which now involves coping with Making Tax Digital – a peculiarly sadistic form of monitoring which, as HMRC has just discovered in its attempt to introduce it in self-employed income tax, can be susceptible to cyber hacking. Yes indeed, create a business on your own and try to make it a success – just try. The Government, and its agents in HMRC who can't even be bothered to answer the phone, will make your life as difficult as possible. And the more obstacles they put in the way to prevent you from flourishing and expanding, the more virtuous they will feel even though you and the real wealth that you create are the only things that might have saved them.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The closing of a local hair salon tells you why Britain is going bust
On Wednesday, Rachel Reeves will stand up in the House and announce her latest plans for saving the country from bankruptcy. Somehow, she will have to produce plausible remedies for a crisis that seems insoluble: how to deal with catastrophic levels of government debt when there are endless demands for more public spending including a brand new commitment to provide more funding for defence. Having ruled out tax rises that clearly impinge directly on what they call 'working people' – income tax, VAT and employee National Insurance contributions – Labour has made this situation more complicated. But, perversely, they have chosen to make it even worse by pushing many of the most productive contributors to the economy out of business. The Labour Government, by putting supposed ideological solidarity over economic reality, has created the perfect formula for the failure of precisely the business sector which contributes most to national vitality and growth. Let me offer an illustration in the hope that it might prove instructive to the present and any future Chancellor. A hairdressing salon that I know in a prosperous North London neighbourhood closed for good several weeks ago. It had been at its current location for over thirty years and was so popular that it often took days to get an appointment. After lockdown it recovered well with its loyal customers delighted to return. The emergence of the four day working week meant that Fridays became as busy as Saturdays and the salon was humming. So what went wrong? The owner was hit simultaneously by the increases in the minimum wage and employer NICS. Added to ever-increasing energy costs (exacerbated by green levies), this burden finally broke them. Even though they were a well-run thriving business, they could not survive. Sadly all of the junior staff and trainees were laid off. Given the economic climate now, they will struggle to find similar jobs anywhere else so they will not be paying any tax for the indefinite future and will almost certainly have to claim unemployment benefit: a double loss for the Treasury. The salon as a company has gone so it will no longer be paying corporation tax. The senior stylists who have carried on working privately are now self-employed which means they can, perfectly legitimately, claim all their work expenses against tax – so they will pay less income tax than they did under PAYE when they were employees. You get the picture. The net effect of the Government's measures has been to reduce the tax take for their own coffers and increase unemployment among people starting out in their working lives whose chances are further damaged by the ridiculous stipulation that they must have full rights to secure employment from the day they are hired. What happened to one hair salon might not seem all that significant to the nation's future. But this pattern is being repeated in small businesses – particularly the ones that provide employment to young people starting out in working life – in countless numbers. Retail shops, building services and hospitality outlets are cutting staff and failing to hire new recruits because the cost of employing them is back breaking. As a result, they are not expanding and developing their businesses as they might have – and so not contributing to the growth of the economy in the significant way that small businesses, with their inherent dynamism and industriousness, once did. Labour, in its supposed determination to support 'working people' has created a doom loop in which fewer people will be joining the workforce and the consequent reduction in tax revenue will make the government even less able to meet the limitless demands of the welfare system as well as pay off its debts. Needless to say, there have been some obvious winners in the Labour dynamic: public sector employees have had their mouths stuffed with gold not only because Labour is historically inclined to favour the unions which represent them but because they can threaten disruption on a scale that reduces any complaining chorus from the small business sector to an inconsequential squeak. But there is more to it than that, in ideological terms: business generally, and small business in particular, are seen as inherently self-interested enterprises. Because they have been created, developed and run by private individuals in the hope of making a profit, they must be morally suspect and less worthy of support than the services that the state funds and operates for the general good of society. Carry this to its logical conclusion and it becomes admirable to penalise people who want to profit from other people's need for their services in order to pay for the provision of services dispensed 'fairly' (and without profit) by the government. You know where this ends, don't you? The most innovative, resourceful, determined individuals who might have developed new ways of creating real wealth and employing more people in experimental ways have impossible demands put on them which threaten their survival or, at the very least, make their continued existence as difficult as possible. They are encumbered with inflexible employment conditions which might possibly be appropriate for huge public sector organisations but are death to experimental emerging enterprises. Their tax arrangements are made so horrendously complicated and difficult to master that expensive accountancy advice becomes essential. I know self-employed sole traders in the creative industries who would like to enlarge their practice but are terrified of crossing the income threshold that would require VAT registration which now involves coping with Making Tax Digital – a peculiarly sadistic form of monitoring which, as HMRC has just discovered in its attempt to introduce it in self-employed income tax, can be susceptible to cyber hacking. Yes indeed, create a business on your own and try to make it a success – just try. The Government, and its agents in HMRC who can't even be bothered to answer the phone, will make your life as difficult as possible. And the more obstacles they put in the way to prevent you from flourishing and expanding, the more virtuous they will feel even though you and the real wealth that you create are the only things that might have saved them. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Hairdressing changes should focus on staffing shortage, hairdresser says
David Seymour getting a haircut at Rodney Wayne in New Market, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Minister for Regulation David Seymour has taken a razor to regulations in the hairdressing industry but the changes have been dismissed as a waste of time by some. From July, barbers and hairdressers will be able to decide things like the distance between salon seats, the brightness of the lights and whether you can have a cup of tea with your cut. The changes follow a review - carried out by the Ministry for Regulation along with the Ministry of Health - that looked at the regulations the industry needed to follow and whether any of them were deemed to be unnecessary or holding the industry back. But owner of Matt Forsman Hair in Wellington Matt Forsman told Midday Report the changes were a unnecessary. "I believe everyone has been ignoring a lot of these rules for quite some time. "Not particularly the spacing of seats or number of lumium required at each station, but the whole, you know, cup of tea coffee thing and also the dog thing. It seems like everyone serves their clients refreshments already and clients are typically aloud to bring their pooch in as well." He said he didn't disagree with the minister that regulations were a "waste of time", but said the attention could be better focused towards other issues facing the industry. "Pre Covid we used to enjoy a really good supply of talented, articulate and clever hairdresser coming from places like the UK, and post Covid we just have not had that. "I don't know whether the immigration standards or regulations have changed or whether we are not a priority, but pretty much every salon owner I know is looking for staff - we have a shortage of people in the industry." Earlier, Minister for Regulation David Seymour said "pointless bureaucracy" was being cut back, and it would save the industry about $1 million a year. "Some will say 'what's a million dollars in the context of the whole economy', I say how many times do you see a government actually removing rules that aren't needed, actually saving money year after year to make it easier to get on with our lives." Seymour said it was critical "people up and down this country who run small businesses can spend more time doing what they want to do and spend less time complying with pointless rules and regulations". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Hairdressing changes welcomed by customers, raising hairs with some in industry.
David Seymour getting a haircut at Rodney Wayne in New Market, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Regulations for hairdressers are being trimmed , with announced changes welcomed by customers, but raising hairs with industry. A review by the Ministries for Regulation and Health examined the rules governing the industry and whether any of them are unnecessary or creating problems for businesses. They included rules prohibiting dogs from barber shops - other than guide-dogs - and a ban on refreshments for people getting their hair done. Regulations Minister David Seymour said he was making cuts to "pointless bureaucracy". "We are taking a serious trim to the amount of pointless bureaucracy, really shaving it back to the scalp where it's no longer needed because it's critical that people up and down this country who run small businesses can spend more time doing what they want to do and spend less time complying with pointless rules and regulations," he said Cabinet has agreed to all of the review's recommendations, with changes coming to affect from July, though modifications to the sale and supply of alcohol would need to go through legislation. Seymour hoped to convince his coalition partners to progress the changes before the end of the year. "Just as you can give someone a sample at a wine cellar door without having to go through the rigmarole of licensing, I think you should be able to do that for a long suffering customer at a barber or hairdresser," he said. "And, you know what, if you don't want to do it you don't have to, that's how a free society works." The regulations would be replaced by guidelines for those wanting to follow best practise, and an evaluation would take place in two years time to see if the changes are working. It was expected to save about a million dollars a year. Getting a hair wash at the same time, Seymour said there was still legislation in place to uphold health and safety standards. "You've still got an obligation to adhere to that, and that's why we're issuing guidance so that people have an idea of how to discharge their health and safety at work obligations." Emma Francis Salon owner Emma Axford-Hawkins said she would make changes if it benefited her business. "If somebody wants to bring in their dog, and it's not going to cause chaos through the salon and interrupt anybody else having a nice, relaxing experience, then it's fine," she said. "If I can set up a bar in the salon and it will make my business more money, then I'm up for it." Axford-Hawkins said she was capable of upholding standards herself, without government oversight. "I feel like we go above and beyond in the salon anyway, cause I want to keep running as a business," she said. "If I'm not clean, and tidy, and keep things to a certain standard anyway I think my business would suffer immensely." And locals around Newmarket were also keen to have a drink, or a dog, in the salon. "I feel like it would make a better connection with the barber, and would lead to less bad haircuts," said one person. "I'm all for it man, I think we're all adults at this point in life and we deserve to relax and enjoy our things ... if you want to have a beer you should be able to have a beer," said another. "Not that keen on the dogs, but on the other hand I can put up with them if somebody's got them well controlled," one woman said. But Hair and Barber NZ's Jess Corbett said their members had mixed feelings about the changes. "We welcome the fact that they are removing barriers to setting up a salon and being a salon operator, they're removing costs, they're removing unnecessary hoops that we had to jump through that were antiquated and irrelevant," she said. However, the group was still advocating for regulation for unqualified hairdressers, said Corbett. "You can be an unqualified hairdresser in New Zealand with no problem. "That was the area that we were most concerned about, and as an association were really pushing for change, and that obviously hasn't been addressed." Corbett encouraged customers to use Hair and Barber member salons. "You know their qualified, you know they know the rules, and they're passionate about keeping industry standard high, so if you're worried about the changes seek out one of those salons and then you can be assured of being safe."
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Hairdressing regulations cut
business life and society 21 minutes ago Minister for Regulation David Seymour has taken a razor to regulations in the hairdressing industry but the changes have been dismissed as a waste of time by some. Matt Forsman Hair in Wellington owner Matt Forsman spoke to Charlotte Cook.
