Hospitality must free itself from red tape

You might think that, with all the legislation we have had to contend with over the past few years, the end must surely be in sight. The Government must have finished taking a fine-toothed comb to our industry and be about to turn its attention to some other transgressor.

But no. The hospitality industry continues to be in the firing line and we can look forward to a raft of new rules and regulations coming out of the EU and Parliament in the near future.

The rights of the consumer are very much at the forefront of the thinking behind fresh legislation that will affect not only our industry, but most other service sector businesses. The Department of Trade and Industry's White Paper Modern Markets: Confident Consumers sets out three driving principles - more effective business-led codes of practice; stronger action against rogue traders; and better access to advice and information.

This is good strong stuff from the public's point of view, but what does it mean for us? Well, hotel charges for telephone calls and single-room supplements will come under scrutiny. Soft drinks prices will be reviewed, along with weights-and-measures issues around draught beer.

There will also be a move to increase the amount of information available to the consumer through more-detailed product labelling and unit pricing to enable price comparisons to be made more easily.

It is clearly a case of trying to address, and counter, the "rip-off Britain" slur that has been bounced around over the past few years. Unfortunately, for all its good intentions, the Government is missing the point when it comes to the hospitality industry.

In other sectors, where the market is dominated by a handful of brand manufacturers or retail chains, there may be the opportunity to disadvantage the consumer and line the suppliers' pockets. The same cannot be said of our sector.

The hospitality industry is highly fragmented. No one restaurant chain or hotel group has more than a few per cent market share and the consumer is swamped with choice. If they feel one bar is charging too much for a glass of lemonade, they can easily take their custom elsewhere. If they don't want to pay £150 a night for a hotel, they can check into a budget hotel for £40.

Of course, there are exceptions, where caterers have a virtual monopoly, say in a leisure park or on a station concourse, but again, higher prices are often justified by the cost of acquiring the concession in a high-traffic site. If consumers don't want to pay a premium, they are at liberty to bring their own refreshments. Hospitality, in general, is a discretionary purchase.

So, my contention is that our industry is self-regulating. We have to keep our prices keen and our customer service at the optimum level, otherwise we simply will not survive in such a competitive market.

The Government's determination to introduce further laws relating to our sector is simply adding unnecessarily to the amount of red tape that businesses already face.

It is easier for large corporations that have external advisers and in-house departments geared up to handle implementation. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the owner/ manager is often the only person available to shoulder the burden, so legislation gets ignored. The irony is that SMEs are the very companies the Government has set out to support.

Also, at a time when our industry is working to improve its image among career-minded young people, the last thing we need is to be seen as a group of bureaucratic penpushers.

What can we do to convince the Government that it is in danger of over-policing our industry while turning a blind eye to the true offenders?

We must be tougher in explaining to the policy-makers the real nature of our business, and the Government, in turn, must be prepared to listen to us in a mature fashion.

The best route is for us to work through our trade bodies. The British Hospitality Association and the Restaurant Association are prime examples of successful lobbying. We can also set to work on our local MPs and those with a special interest in hospitality and food retailing.

We must be vigilant and, wherever we feel that those in authority have misunderstood the true nature of our industry, we must be prepared to leap to our feet and set them right. The time is long overdue for us to make our voices heard.

Stephen Evans is a former director of Whitbread Restaurants and is an active member of the British Hospitality Association restaurant panel and the Restaurant Association committee.