Template Letter To Your MP: Fashion Industry Fears For Future Over Brexit Trade Deal
A template letter to your MP highlighting Fashion Roundtable’s plea to Government, which urges action that will protect the future of the UK fashion industry.
Notes to Reader:
Make sure to include your name, postal address, contact number - MPs can only respond to constituents, and this is the information they need.
You can find out who your MP is here.
The more you personalise this letter, the more impact it will have. Don’t be afraid to tell your MP about your concerns and the impact of Brexit on your friends, family or business.
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SUBJECT HEADING: FASHION INDUSTRY FEARS FOR FUTURE OVER BREXIT TRADE DEAL
[Your Full Name]
[Address & Postcode]
[Contact Number]
Dear [Insert MPs Name],
I am writing to you as a local [constituent/business owner etc.] to express my concern about the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on the UK fashion industry.
As highlighted in Fashion Roundtable's open letter to the Government (published in the FT, BBC and many more news outlets), the post-Brexit trade deal poses a significant threat the UK's lucrative fashion industry. The letter is signed by more than 450 industry leaders including Dame Twiggy Lawson DBE, Jess McGuire-Dudley CEO of John Smedley, Helen Brocklebank CEO of Walpole, and several cross-party parliamentarians.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, the UK's fashion industry contributed £35bn to UK GDP (primarily filtered through retail) and employed almost 1 million people. Now, the industry is at real risk of decimation. 2020 marked the worst year for the high street in a quarter of a century with 320 shops closing every week, suffering its worst annual sales performances on record. During the past year, 176,718 jobs have already been lost in the fashion retail sector alone. Driven by a slump in demand for fashion products, Oxford Economics forecasted the fashion industry's £35bn UK GDP contribution could fall to £26.2bn, a hammer blow against a sector that had been thriving for several years.
The impact of Brexit on the fashion industry is pertinent to you as my MP for [Insert Constituency]. Our local high street [Insert high street, e.g. Liverpool 1, Oxford Street, etc.], brands, SMEs and creatives are at risk, and more must be done by the Government to protect the fashion industry and the people it employs.
UK fashion brands now need to have EU distributors which impact on margins. If they sell B2C online to EU customers, these customers are now charged with VAT, duties and handling fees amounting to an additional 30% on top of the product price, making them less likely to continue buying from UK brands. This will impact UK SMEs who cannot afford to pay EU distributors and use online sales platforms, the most.
Garment workers are not included on the Shortage Occupation List for Visas, meaning that UK manufacturers potentially face thousands of unfilled vacancies in their factories. Simultaneously, we should train domicile talent by bringing forward the Craft & Design T-Level course that will not begin until September 2023.
The Government decision to end the VAT RES is forecast to impact all UK retailers who sell to tourists at a loss of more than £3.5 billion worth of tax-free retail sales and up to 41,000 jobs. This will impact our retailers and impact tourism and travel, both industries that will need support post-pandemic. We hope the Government will revisit this decision.
Our fashion and textile SMEs, who manufacture everything from knitwear to millinery, jewellery to shoes, denim to designer clothes, deserve the same levels of recognition and financial support offered to other industries. We urge the Government to consider the same kinds of tax relief provided to the film industry for brands showing sustainable leadership and innovation with UK manufacturing, in light of the climate crisis.
Lastly, the fashion industry wants the same support levels as seen for the film industry, who are currently listed on the critical workers' list and were offered a travel exemption. There are approximately 15,000 models represented in the UK, of whom circa 60% are non-British. In contrast, many of our UK models enjoy global name recognition and as world-class high earning models from the UK, pay a percentage of their total worldwide earnings to their UK “mother agency” here in the UK as taxable income for UK GDP.
[How has Brexit affected you? Has someone you know lost their job in retail? Is your business facing increased costs? The more you personalise this letter, the better].
With so many jobs and so much revenue at stake, I am appealing to you to:
Read the open letter;
Share and support the letter on social media;
Encourage the Government to meet with industry leaders.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours Sincerely,
[Insert Name]