WATCH: Jack Carson downs his pint as he celebrates St George's Day festival in London

Carlson

Well, here I am, Dawn. I'm a little bit over halfway through this because, of course, it's..

Well, you've joined us, right? The sun's gone in this typical timing, isn't it? But we have been enjoying this

I've been enjoying this, certainly, in the sunshine. And so have lots of other people, too

joining these St. George's Day celebrations here in Trafalgar. We're celebrating, really, what it means to be English

how proud we are to celebrate who we are in this country, our history, our heritage as well

And, of course, people like me enjoying places like the bar as well

And I want to speak to Paddy Andrews from Street Food Union, who's helped put all of the food and drink on here for the day

St. George's Day, big celebration. Are you happy to be here? What does it mean for you to be here and celebrate this day

Yeah, we're super excited to be here. Very, very proud to be managing all the food and drink

And we're showing off amazing English produce, English traders, local traders, and yeah enhancing the event So yeah we very very proud to be here What does that mean because when we talk about St George Day and celebrating kind of English food is a big part of our kind of our culture and what we love and you got everything from fish

and chips to British Jockworg all kinds of things that we're celebrating here today. Yeah so we've

got obviously traditional English fish and chips staple dish we've got strawberries and cream we've

got the duck shed they're serving Essex reared ducks Cheeky Bird are using Somerset cheddar

And obviously we've got the bar, I mean English bar. Can you get more English than a double-decker Rootmaster bus

But of course, you know, we're doing this all, you know, in a moment which hospitality are openly saying is quite tough

How do you kind of see the current environment? Yeah, so to be honest, all the hospitality businesses are really struggling at the moment

especially with the recent budget kicking in this month. VAT we're really struggling with

We need a reform on the VAT. We're really struggling with business rates at the moment

I know a lot of cafes that have been dragged into kind of that business rates, which never used to be there

They're all paying it from this year. So yeah, we're struggling as a whole. You've got prices going up

The diesel we all struggling on our diesel The government not cutting their tax on that So yeah we struggling at the moment as an industry We on the floor Because the government of course brought in relief earlier in the year for pubs specifically

And they've said on hospitality specifically that they've given £4.3 billion over the past few years in economic support package

So why is the situation as it is at the moment? What more support do you need

What would help your business effectively grow and be able to be sustained over the years to come

Yeah, so I think the main thing is they've given support to pubs 100% needed. We want to see our British pubs survive and prosper

The thing we're struggling with is VAT and hospitality. So all hot food has to obviously, we pay VAT on it, so we lose 20% straight off the bat

Whereas when you buy from the supermarket, you don't have VAT on cold food

So all other European countries, they've reduced their VAT limit for, not VAT limit

but the amount of VAT they charge for food, for hot food

So that's where we really need some support is a VAT reform. And also on national insurance contributions we all employ Hospitality is one of the biggest biggest contributors to employment in the uk and we getting penalized on employing more people as the

businesses expand they're having to pay more national contribution more national contributions

that's insurance contributions so yeah we're really struggling on that haddie thank you so

much for joining us and talking through all of that and of course you know helping to provide all

of the wonderful food and certainly as i'm enjoying drink uh here today and of course you know it's

george's day celebrating as you heard paddy talking now about british fish and chips you

know essex reared duck celebrating some of these british staples and our british food is one and

our english food is one of the great ways of course today we're celebrating central just

brilliant jack thank you so much oh jack carson i love you go and finish it all one for me as well down in one that's the boy well

Well done, Jack. Jack Carson, the wonderful Jack Carson, the GBU's national reporter, live-ish

in Trafalgar Square at a St. George's Day celebration. Jack, go and have another one on me

Thanks very much, lovely