Letters: The Budget must reduce lockdown damage to women in business

A hairdresser at work in Vienna, but April 12 is the earliest salons may open in England - LISI NIESNER/REUTERS
A hairdresser at work in Vienna, but April 12 is the earliest salons may open in England - LISI NIESNER/REUTERS

SIR – We are concerned that the fiscal impact of the Government’s lockdown measures on women is being overlooked.

The virus has taken its toll on a great many people in Britain, but a significant number of female employers, entrepreneurs and employees are being affected – and the damage could take decades to repair.

More women than men work in sectors that have shut down. Mothers are almost 50 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs or been forced to leave because school closures have created a childcare crisis.

Sectors largely staffed by women – such as retail and hospitality – have suffered massive job losses. Already almost 5,000 beauty salons have been forced to close.

The British beauty industry is worth £28 billion to Britain’s GDP – double the value of car manufacturing – yet there has been no sector-specific financial support, despite one in 60 jobs being within its businesses, many of which were started by women.

The lockdowns have also exposed and accelerated the vulnerability of our high streets. Online sales have boomed, while retailers are being unfairly disadvantaged by having to pay high business rates. The collapse of Debenhams and Arcadia alone has seen 25,000 women lose their jobs. As more retail moves online, shops – which have mainly female staff – are being replaced by warehouses and jobs in deliveries, which are taken by men.

We believe the lockdown is turning back the clock on Britain’s working women – who are not only losing their jobs at an alarming rate, but have also borne the brunt of the domestic load and home-schooling. We call on the Government to take action to halt this reversal by properly assessing the impact the pandemic has had on women’s lives in the UK.

In Wednesday’s Budget, we are asking for a temporary cut to the VAT for hair and beauty salons, from 20 to 5 per cent, in line with the VAT relief offered to the hospitality sector. We are also asking the Government to continue the business rates holiday to the end of the pandemic, and to lower them to 50 per cent thereafter.

These actions would show the Government’s commitment to backing business women in Britain, and that the female workforce is considered a vital part of the UK’s recovery plan.

Caroline Nokes MP (Con)
Chair, House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee

Cherie Blair

Mary Portas

Baroness Morrissey

Jane Shepherdson
Chair of My Wardrobe HQ, Director of London Fashion Fund

Millie Kendall
CEO, British Beauty Council

Baroness Bertin

Baroness Bakewell

Amber Rudd
Former Women and Equalities Minister

Dame Jenni Murray
Former Woman’s Hour presenter

Tamara Gillan
Founder, WealthiHer Network

Jane Boardman
Chairman, British Beauty Council

Jude Kelly
Founder, The Wow Foundation

Holly Tucker
Co-founder of Notonthehighstreet; founder of Holly & Co; UK Ambassador to Creative Small Businesses

India Hicks

Deborah Williams
Founder, The Women’s Association

Dame Heather Rabbatts
Chair, Time’s Up UK

Brenda Trenowden
Former Global Chair, The 30% Club

Ann Cairns
Global Chair, The 30% Club

Ann Francke
Chief Executive, The Chartered Management Institute

Justine Roberts
Founder, Mumsnet

Felicia Willow
CEO, The Fawcett Society

Justine Simons
Deputy London Mayor

Laura Bates

Founder, Everyday Sexism Project

Arizona Muse

Mika Simmons
Founder, The Lady Garden Foundation

Trinny Woodall
Founder and CEO, Trinny London

Dr Helen Pankhurst

Christine Armstrong

Joeli Brearley
Founder and CEO, Pregnant Then Screwed

Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
Founder, Women in Leadership

Pinky Lilani
Founder, Women of the Future

Dr Jackie Mulligan
Founder and CEO, Shopappy.com

Fiona McIntosh
Co-founder, Blow Ltd

Lesley Blair
Chair, Babtac

Madeleine Raynel
Managing Director, Treatwell

Julianne Miles
Co-founder and CEO, Women Returners

Vanessa Vallely
Founder, We Are the City

Sam Smethers
Former CEO, The Fawcett Society

Angela Luger

Michelle King

Sian Sutherland
Co-Founder, A Plastic Planet

Dr Julie Hoegh
ClientEarth

Sharmadean Reid
Founder, Beautystack

Helena Grzesk
COO, British Beauty Council

Alexia Inge
CEO, Cult Beauty

Anna Teal
CEO, Aromatherapy Associates

Marcia Kilgore
Founder, Beauty Pie

Vasiliki Petrou
CEO, Unilever Prestige

Marian Newman
Founder, The Federation of Nail Professionals

Mary Greenwell

Ruby Hammer

Vanita Parti
Founder, Blink Brow Bar

Michelle de Klerk
Founder, The Women’s Chapter Network

Julia Elliott Brown
Founder, Enter the Arena

Emma Sayle
CEO, Killing Kittens and Sistr Ltd

Martha Silcott
Founder, Fab Little Bag

Stephanie Betts
Director, Josephine Home

Amanda Smit
Owner, Delish and Yummy

Nancy Zeffman and Eileen Willett
Co-Founders, Cucumber Clothing Limited

Gemma Scott
Co-director, SB surveyors

Victoria Chalmers
Founder and CEO, Black & White Comms

Julie Hawkins
Founder and Director, Single Mums Business Network

Venetia Archer
Founder, Ruuby

Debbie Trumper
Founder, Debbie Trumper Consultancy

Lara Morgan
CEO and Founder, Functionality Fragrances,

Sex-change drugs

SIR – I am a retired pharmacist. How can pharmacies dispense prescriptions signed by doctors who are not on the UK medical register (“Online clinic prescribes sex-change drugs to children without parents’ consent”, report, February 27)? To my mind this would render such documents illegal.

M J Shucksmith
Fordingbridge, Hampshire

Militarily less capable

SIR – Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has the right instincts (“Gulf conflict reminds us to prepare for future wars”, Comment, February 27), but he is economical with the truth when he talks of “the biggest defence investment since the end of the Cold War” focusing “on the threats”.

Notwithstanding the much-welcomed four-year uplift to defence spending announced last November, the relative amount of money spent on defence has steadily declined for many years. The result has been that, despite warm words by governments of all persuasions, the driver of each review has been cost and not countering threats to our nation and people.

Talk of “giving us deployable, capable forces, equipped with next-generation capabilities” will not disguise a further reduction in our nation’s overall military capability.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead
London SW1

Biting on shot

SIR – I was amused by the sensible counsel of Malvern Harper (Letters, February 27) that “we should continue to check game for lead shot and protect our teeth until they replace it with a more suitable alternative”.

As an avid eater of game, I find the occasional sensation of biting on a little lead pellet or two is mildly unpleasant, but tempered by the satisfaction of hearing the clunk of the substantially flattened, or at least tooth-marked, projectile on the side of one’s plate.

Unfortunately, the alternative to lead shot appears to be steel, which is unlikely to prove as kind to dentition.

Thomas Crockett
Fairford, Gloucestershire

The likes of Harry

SIR – Having, like, read and heard some of the recent self-centred guff from Prince Harry, I have decided to, like, sort of, dislike the word like.

Grahame Wiggin
Cannock, Staffordshire

Unvaccinated medics

SIR – Nurses and doctors are members of “regulated professions” and subject to professional regulatory standards.

For doctors these are set out in Good Medical Practice, published by the General Medical Council. The section “Risks posed by your health” says: “You should be immunised against common serious communicable diseases (unless otherwise contraindicated).”

As part of their “revalidation” all doctors are required to reflect upon their immunisation status, which may be discussed by their appraiser. Revalidation would be in doubt if a doctor were not to be immunised.

In the past, employers have required pre-employment blood tests to show satisfactory levels of immunity for serious diseases such as hepatitis B.

Nursing standards are set out in the Code published by the Nursing & Midwifery Council. It says: “Be aware of, and reduce as far as possible, any potential for harm associated with your practice.” Section 19.4 says: “Take all reasonable personal precautions necessary to avoid any potential health risks to colleagues, people receiving care and the public”

For both professions, the regulator can take action if those on their register fail to uphold the standards. In serious cases, this can include removal from the register.

Though there may be medical contraindications, no patient should be informed by a registered health professional that vaccination for a serious communicable disease such as Covid 19 is a matter of personal choice.

Robert Baker
Danescourt, Glamorgan

Christ Church at work

SIR – I have read various letters from alumni of Christ Church, Oxford, complaining of the treatment of the Very Rev Martyn Percy. As far as I can see, his supposed ill treatment consists of the governing body investigating an allegation into inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.

I welcome Christ Church taking such allegations seriously. During my time as an undergraduate I experienced unwanted attention from a tutor, but was afraid to speak out. Eventually, he was dismissed for other misconduct, but the protection of young women was not a priority in those days.

As a lawyer, I understand the importance of the presumption of innocence. Equally, I understand the importance of due process.

A woman has little to gain from speaking out against sexual harassment since it often gets trivialised. Grooming starts with small compliments, casual touching, invasions of personal space. Once things have gone too far, she dare not speak out because she feels she has somehow colluded in it. That is how power games work.

A fair and transparent process is now needed to restore harmony to this beautiful college and cathedral.

Whatever the outcome, I salute the governing body for insisting that men in power need to be accountable for their actions and words. And that women, whether in business attire or in cassocks, are to be treated as equals whose testimony matters.

Annabel Dearing
Brighton, East Sussex

McBoutface

SIR – I might be a shallow individual, but I am sure I cannot be alone in a taking a perverse pleasure in seeing the two most unpleasant people in Scottish politics tearing one another to shreds.

Captain Graham Sullivan RN (retd)
Gislingham, Suffolk

Enjoying the memory of a secret police thug

Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), founder of the Cheka, painted by Evgeni Katsman in 1923 -  Album / Alamy
Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), founder of the Cheka, painted by Evgeni Katsman in 1923 - Album / Alamy

SIR – I was interested by the proposal to reinstate the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow. It still stood in front of the Lubyanka when I passed through in August 1991, the month of the coup against Gorbachev.

I was en route to some rewarding ethno-archaeological fieldwork on horseback in Daghestan. After a month or two, on my return from the Caucasus, newly liberated from a brief kidnapping, the statue had disappeared.

I do not remember objecting in principle to the removal of the statue of an admitted secret police thug, as I do now to the sanctimonious purging of our past.

What really amused me was that I later received a letter from my kidnapper’s solicitor in Canada (whither he had migrated with a few of my dollars), asking for a character reference, so that he could obtain residency. I returned a very warm reference, not wanting to see him again.

Virgil put it all rather well: et haec olim meminisse iuvabit – “some day we shall enjoy remembering even these things”.

Dr John Nandris
Merton, Oxfordshire

Shutting out visitors to National Trust houses

The manor house of Shute Barton, Devon, home to the Pole family for 400 years  - Percy Ryall / Alamy
The manor house of Shute Barton, Devon, home to the Pole family for 400 years - Percy Ryall / Alamy

SIR – I read with interest the letter from Peregrine Pole-Carew (February 27), whose family occupied the lovely crenellated manor house of Shute Barton, Devon, for 400 years. I was privileged to be one of the 30 volunteers mentioned in his letter who guided visitors around this wonderful property from April to October.

Under the expert guidance of Gillian and Christopher Pole-Carew I learnt its long and interesting history until I could guide my own tours.

In 12 wonderful years I showed hundreds of people around the house, bringing its history and inhabitants to life. Many visitors mentioned how much more they enjoyed a property that had guided tours.

I was very saddened, therefore, to learn that the National Trust was now only opening this house as a full-time top-end “holiday cottage”. It was always my understanding that Shute Barton was left to the trust in 1958 for all to enjoy. Surely it was not the intention of the founders of the trust that only the wealthy could see inside the buildings they took so much trouble to save for the nation.

Hilary Abrams
Sidmouth, Devon

SIR – Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire (former seat of the Massingberds), is another National Trust building to be closed to the public.

There is disquiet among its team of dedicated volunteers and a petition has been set up opposing the trust’s proposals to make the main house a holiday venue.

Rob Kendrick
Metheringham, Lincolnshire

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