Hospitality scores with new labour

British Hospitality Association (BHA) chief executive Jeremy Logie is confident that the relationship between government and hospitality has been a success during New Labour's first year in power.

"The first success we have scored is recognition," he told the Catering Forum. "Why? The answer is jobs. At last it has dawned on the politicians that we can help reduce unemployment more than any other industry. The most recent number of notified vacancies in hospitality comes to over 76,000.

"If we add on natural wastage of about 200,000 and an annual growth of the industry requiring 30,000 additional employees, we are actually looking for nearly 400,000 staff this year."

According to Logie, this means "at last, an important item on our agenda matches one of the Government's".