Local salon owners rush to support VAT-busting campaign

‘Save Our Salons’ - the campaign to help hair and beauty salon owners lobby their local MPs for a VAT cut to 5%, is experiencing “phenomenal success,” just three weeks after launch.

Salon owners from across the country are backing the campaign in their droves and to date, MPs from 286 UK constituencies have received letters from their local salons, calling on them to support an urgent cut in VAT for all personal care businesses.

Campaign co-founder Stephen Nurse, operations director of the Daniel Galvin salon and haircare business, told TheIndustry.Fashion: “To date, MP’s from well over a third of the UK’s 650 constituencies have received a minimum of one letter each from local salon owners asking them to support the campaign to cut the VAT. It’s amazing!”

“A reduction in the VAT to 5%, in line with the hospitality sector, would be the single biggest thing that would help our industry at this moment in time.

“The really great news is that MPs are listening to the stories of these salon owners and taking it upon themselves to write directly to the Treasury on behalf of their constituents – so the Treasury is being bombarded with letters.

“Our goal is to get every single MP in the UK to receive at least two letters from their local salon owners – we’re about halfway there in just three weeks, which is just fantastic.”

According to a recent survey of 174 salon owners by the campaign, 80% of owners said a cut in VAT would be crucial to the survival of their business this year.

Salon owners who sign up to the ‘Save Our Salons’ campaign can access a raft of material including a directory of MPs, with their full contact details, template letters to MPs that set out the argument for the VAT cut, fact sheets and social media imagery.

According to the campaign, the personal care industry is one of the most taxed by percentage on the high-street.

Most salons trade at between 3% and 5% profit -or £3 to £5 for every £100.

For every £100 of revenue, a reduction in VAT to 5% would add £12 to salon takings – a “lifesaver for all VAT-paying salons,” the campaign states.