Wednesday April 1st will likely have been circled on the calendars of hospitality sector leaders since the very start of the year. Not to mark the deployment of an elaborate April’s Fool’s Day prank, but as a reminder of an impending cost crisis that is anything but a joke to businesses.
Increases in the national living wage, national minimum wage and business rates equate to a £1.4bn additional annual increase for businesses, according to a coalition of hospitality sector bodies. A survey of members by UKHospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping, and Hospitality Ulster found that almost two thirds (64%) of businesses plan to cut jobs, 51% say they will cancel investment plans and 42% intend to reduce trading hours as a direct result of the cost increases. Around one in seven venues (15%) say they will be forced to close altogether.
Cost hikes associated with domestic tax policy have fallen at a time when global events have added fuel to the fire. Even when surveyed prior to the war in Iran, almost all businesses (93%) said energy costs were impacting profitability. The group of trade bodies said the UK Government should be prepared to support vulnerable businesses “if they are thrown into yet another crisis”.
Much of the discourse around the impact of the conflict for food and farming has focused on the rising price of oil and gas linked to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the ripple effect on the cost of key inputs like fertiliser and plastic packaging. It has also sharpened the focus on the food system’s current fossil fuel dependence and has strengthened calls for farmers to reduce their reliance on chemical fertilisers by adopting regenerative principles such as cover cropping and crop diversity.
Farming sector leaders have pointed out that these are long-term system changes that cannot be implemented overnight. Indeed, Footprint has detailed at length in numerous reports on regenerative agriculture how farmers need to be rewarded for their investment through reliable public and private sector financing and long-term secure contracts, in recognition that yields and profits may fall initially before the rewards of transitioning to more nature-based systems are fully felt.
Where stakeholders agree is that government ministers need to do some serious thinking about the resilience of the UK’s food supply and how to protect farmers, businesses and citizens from current and future shocks. This leads us neatly to the government’s new ‘Farming and food partnership board’, which held its first meeting last week. The formation of the board was announced by Defra secretary of state, Emma Reynolds, at the Oxford Farming Conference in January following a recommendation by Baroness Minette Batters in her independent farming profitability review. Founding members of the board are the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the Agricultural Industries Confederation, the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, the Institute of Grocery Distribution, the National Farmers’ Union, and UKHospitality. Its first job will be to develop growth plans for the horticulture and poultry sectors.
The board’s dominance by mainstream food and farming bodies has not gone unnoticed by environmental campaigners. Sustain, the alliance for food and farming, highlighted the absence of voices from sustainable, agroecological and nature-friendly farming.
“A board that brings the whole food chain together around farm profitability and food security is a welcome idea, and we are glad to see horticulture at the top of the government’s agenda – that’s a direct response to the case that Sustain and our alliance partners have been making for years,” said Glen Tarman, director of policy and advocacy at Sustain.
“But a board that draws its founding membership almost entirely from commodity agriculture and major retail is starting from a narrow base. The sustainable farming movement, nature-friendly growers, and organisations working on food system resilience have a great deal to contribute here.”
Small Bites
Mandatory food hygiene displays on the horizon
Out of home food businesses in England would be forced to display their food hygiene rating score if new proposals are adopted. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced that improving consumer information, including making the display of food hygiene ratings mandatory in England, will be a key priority under its ‘Future of food regulation’ programme. Currently, restaurants and other out of home venues can decide whether or not they choose to display their rating on a scale of 0-5, unlike in Wales and Northern Ireland where display is mandatory (Scotland has its own scheme). The FSA said the aim of the programme is to ensure the system for keeping food safe keeps pace with new and emerging food businesses and reflects how people buy and consume food today. It also plans to further develop plans for a national approach to regulation for some large businesses operating multiple outlets whereby data from third party auditors is taken into account when assessing the level of food safety risk. The long-mooted proposal has proved controversial with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health warning back in 2024 that national level regulation of large food businesses, like major supermarkets, risks a loss of consumer confidence in the system.
Local leaders benefit from sustainable food funding
A handful of pioneering local authorities across England are to receive government funding to help local food producers supply healthy, sustainable food to the public sector. Defra has announced that councils including Middlesbrough, Brighton and Hove, Bristol and Cambridge will each receive £155,000 to improve how food is procured and increase the provision of healthier and more sustainable food options. The money will also be used to help local and small food businesses better understand how to supply to the public sector. The government said the initiative would help towards its ambition for at least half of all public sector food, worth £4.9bn in England each year, to be sourced locally or certified to higher environmental standards. The councils have been chosen because they hold either a gold ‘Food for life served here’ or gold ‘Sustainable food places’ accreditation making them leaders in sustainable food procurement. Lessons learned from the pilots will help other councils across England source healthier, more sustainable and better value food, Defra said.
Survey shows backlash against processed foods
A growing number of people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are cutting back on processed foods for health reasons, new research has found. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) found that three-quarters of people (75%) said they had made at least one change to their eating habits for health reasons in the previous 12 months. Of those who said they had made a change, the most common changes reported were eating less processed food (49%), cutting down on foods and drinks containing high levels of sugar (48%), and eating more fruit and vegetables (46%). The findings suggest concerns raised by some experts over the health effects of diets high in ultra-processed foods continue to cut through to the public and shape purchasing habits. The data came from the FSA’s latest consumer survey, food and you 2, which surveyed a representative sample of 6,000 adults across three out of the four home nations between May 2025 and August 2025. More than half of respondents (55%) said they had made at least one change for sustainability reasons in the same period. The most common changes reported were starting to minimise food waste (36%), buying foods with minimal or no packaging (25%), and buying locally produced or seasonal food (21%).
Chef’s Special
Costa Coffee has launched a new limited-edition range of ube flavoured drinks in time for Easter. What exactly is ube you might ask? Your correspondent was faced with the same question on hearing the news that sweet ube hot chocolate and sweet ube frappe have joined the coffee shop’s spring 2026 UK menu. Helpfully, CNN has just published a report into the origins of ube and the impact that growing global demand is having on local production. Ube is a species of yam native to the Philippines. It has become a trending ingredient in the US in part due to its vibrant purple colour which, when combined with a nutty or vanilla-like taste, makes it an ideal – and perhaps most importantly ‘Instagrammable’ – addition to drinks or desserts. Starbucks rolled out an iced ube coconut macchiato across its US stores earlier this month. But as so often with heritage foods that suddenly find a global audience, a spike in interest has put strains on supply. The article explains how scaling up production to meet demand is proving challenging in a country exposed to climate extremes and for a crop that requires plenty of moisture throughout its growing period. The fear is that not only will ube become detached from its cultural roots, but brands seeking a slice of the action will substitute true ube for extract products or, worse still, purple coloring with no hint of ube at all.
Last Orders
New planning rules will make it easier for pubs and bars to open in town centres across the UK in a move ministers hope will breathe fresh life into the nation’s high streets. The UK Government has announced plans to introduce a new national licensing policy framework that will streamline and standardise the process for converting disused shops into hospitality venues. Under the plans, new dedicated ‘hospitality zones’ will be introduced where permissions for alfresco dining, street parties and extended opening hours will be fast-tracked in a move ministers say will help bring vibrancy and footfall back to the high street. The government said it will also protect long-standing pubs, clubs and music venues from noise complaints by new developments by introducing an ‘agent of change’ principle into national planning and licensing policy whereby developers will be responsible for soundproofing their buildings if they choose to build near existing pubs, clubs or music venues.
