Premier Inn owner brands last two Budgets 'most unfriendly to hospitality ever'

Updated: 07:13 EDT, 13 October 2026 The boss of Whitbread has described Labour's two Budgets as the most unfriendly to hospitality ever, as he reiterated calls to roll back National Insurance changes. Chief executive Dominic Paul said two Budgets had been 'the most unfriendly budget to hospitality that probably the industry has ever seen' after firms were surprised by rate increases alongside hikes to wages and a shock increase to NI employer payments. He said it had become 'really hard to create as many jobs as we want to when we've got these punitive increases in hotel business rates and employment costs.’ Rolling back the changes to National Insurance would ‘enable us to create new jobs’ and help with the country’s worrying youth unemployment problem, he said.Whitbread's business rates bill is set to double to £200 million by 2028, and the sector had been ‘hammered’ over the last two Budgets.He called on Andy Burnham and John Healey to freeze business rate hikes for hotels as he revealed Whitbread's half-year profits were hit by a restructuring plan prompted by last year's tax rises. He said: ‘We need them to move away from the increases they’ve got planned for the next two years because they’re punitive. Whitbread has called for support for hotels with business rates at the upcoming Budget‘We’re actually really supportive of the government’s agenda to get the country back to growth and create jobs. We need the government to help us in order for us to help the country.’Although pubs and live music venues have been promised a reduction on their business rates bills from next spring, hotels have been furious about their own bills rising over the next few years.He also hit out at the Government’s proposals for a visitor levy to charge all tourists staying overnight in the UK.Paul said: ‘This is further taxation on hardworking, highly taxed people in the UK, and there is no clear evidence of how or where that money will be spent, which seems like a very inefficient way of taking money from the general population and then putting it back into the economy.’The hotel giant has urged investors to reject its third biggest shareholder Corvex's attempts to win a board seat. The US hedge fund holds a stake of around 6.4 per cent in Whitbread, worth around £270 million.Paul said the company was ‘not credible’ and he had a ‘firm opinion’ on not giving them a board seat. He said Corvex ‘has a changing thesis’ and was serving as a ‘distraction’.The investor previously urged Whitbread to launch a sales process and then a few months later said it was not ‘demanding a sale of the company.’It wants Whitbread to split its business into separate hotel operations and real estate companies.The business, which operates more than 850 hotels across Germany and the UK, said in April it would shut its restaurant business in a move risking 3,800 jobs across the UK and Ireland.It also announced plans to sell and lease back £1.5 billion of its freehold properties.Profits for the six months to 27 August fell 62 per cent to £109 million as strong sales were offset by the costs relating to its restructuring and higher costs.DIY INVESTING PLATFORMSAJ BellAJ BellEasy investing and ready-made portfoliosHargreaves LansdownHargreaves LansdownFree fund dealing and investment ideasinteractive investorinteractive investorFlat-fee investing from £4.99 per monthFreetradeFreetradeInvesting Isa now free on basic planTrading 212Trading 212Free share dealing and no account feeAffiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.Compare the best investing account for you