Fashion Roundtable joins industry stakeholders and calls on the Government to reverse plans to bring an end to the VAT Retail Export Scheme
14th October 2020
Fashion Roundtable joins industry stakeholders and calls on the Government to reverse plans to bring an end to the VAT Retail Export Scheme. As highlighted in the report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research, Government plans to end VAT-free shopping for international visitors would result in up to forty-one thousand job losses, reduce non-EU visitors to the UK by 7.3 per cent, and result in an estimated total decrease in spending by tourists by up to £1.8 billion. The report finds that tax-free shopping supports £3.5 billion worth of tax-free retail sales, and if extended to EU visitors, this would rise to around £7 billion. This decision is short-sighted, and the result would be ruinous for those important sectors already reeling from the impact of Covid-19.
The British Retail Consortium - the trade association for UK retailers - is working closely with Fashion Roundtable, Walpole, the New West End Company, the Association of International Retail (AIR), and colleagues in retail, tourism and airlines across the UK to express its deep concern and shock over the decision made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak MP. At Fashion Roundtable, we are also working directly with the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles & Fashion, Dr. Lisa Cameron MP to challenge the Chancellor's decision to scrap tax-free shopping for international visitors in Parliament.
CEO & Founder of Fashion Roundtable, Tamara Cincik, said: “The timing of the decision to remove tax free shopping is something the entire fashion and retail industry can ill afford if we are to remain a leading global destination. Our world leading retail offer - from Mayfair, to Bicester, from Edinburgh to Manchester - entices tourists from all over the globe. If we end tax free shopping, we will drive those consumers to other destinations, such as Paris or New York, precisely at a time when aviation, tourism, hospitality and retail need to be revitalised in the post-Covid economy. We urge the Government to review their position to ensure the UK remains a competitive destination of choice.”
Latest figures from the British Fashion Council show that the UK fashion industry contributed £32.3 billion to UK GDP in 2018, a 5.4 percent increase from 2016 - making the UK fashion sector the largest of the creative industries. Yet, Britain's fashion industry is poised to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs and suffer a 25% drop in revenue in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, according to data made available by the British Fashion Council this year. To push ahead with plans to end the VAT Retail Export Scheme will reverse the progress that the fashion industry has made and would be a retrograde step, in addition to compounding existing challenges in other key sectors.
If you or the company you represent would like to talk more on this topic, please contact admin@fashionroundtable.com.