Dear Chancellor,
This week is British Beauty Week. It celebrates an industry that contributed £28.3 billion to UK GDP in 2025 and supported 595,000 jobs. Beauty is the largest business category on our high streets, and it employs almost as many people as construction.
But I want to talk about something that isn’t celebrated nearly enough: the businesses and skilled professionals behind those numbers, and how hard it has become to keep them going.
I’ve owned Serenity Loves Hair & Beauty in Peterborough for 14 years. We’ve grown into a multi-award-winning salon, received national press coverage and worked with government and industry organisations. This year we were named Business of the Decade and SME Employer of the Year at the Peterborough Apprenticeship Awards.
From the outside, Serenity Loves might look like a big brand.
The reality? It’s just me and our team of 16. No corporate investors. No head office. No endless resources. Just an incredibly hardworking team who have built something we’re immensely proud of.
TURNOVER IS NOT PROFIT
Last quarter, Serenity Loves paid £23,000 in VAT. At the same rate, that’s around £92,000 a year — roughly the first-year wages of five and a half apprentices.
I know what some people will say: VAT is the client’s money; the salon just collects it. Here’s why it hits a salon differently.
On a £60 appointment, £10 goes straight to HMRC before we’ve paid a single wage, bought a tube of colour or switched on the lights.
A shop can reclaim the VAT on the stock it buys. Most of what our clients pay us goes on people — and there’s no VAT to reclaim on wages. For a labour-intensive business like ours, almost all of that 20% is simply lost.
THE SYSTEM REWARDS THE MODEL THAT DOESN’T TRAIN
According to the National Hair & Beauty Federation, 93% of hair and beauty businesses sit below the £90,000 VAT threshold, and many deliberately stay there. A salon below the threshold can charge up to 20% less than a VAT-registered employing salon like ours.
I have huge respect for self-employed professionals — it has an important place in our industry. But only employing salons can take on apprentices. So the current system tilts the playing field against exactly the businesses training the next generation.
THE TRUE COST OF RUNNING AN EMPLOYMENT-LED SALON
On top of VAT, we pay:
- 15% Employer National Insurance on our qualified team’s earnings above the threshold
- Corporation Tax of up to 25% on profits
- Business rates
- Employer pension contributions
- Statutory holiday pay and sick pay
- Rising wage costs — the National Living Wage rose from £12.21 to £12.71 this April
Then there’s everything people rarely think about: rent, electricity, heating and water. Commercial waste collection — yes, we pay to have our bins emptied. Music licensing — even playing the radio costs money. Insurance, accountants and payroll. Booking systems and card fees (over £600 last month alone). Colour, foils, products, towels, laundry, training, marketing and repairs.
Every single cost comes out before we can talk about profit.
I’ve taken out personal and business finance, reinvested constantly, worked countless hours and often been the last person paid. Not because we’re in trouble, but because I take the responsibility of employing my team seriously.
In 14 years, it has never been harder to make this business profitable. We do everything the right way, but it’s starting to feel impossible. Our industry is on its knees, and I’m seriously worried about its future.
WE ARE LOSING THE NEXT GENERATION
In England, hairdressing and barbering apprenticeship starts fell from 16,080 in 2015/16 to just 5,250 in 2024/25 (Department for Education). That’s a fall of around 67% — almost seven in every ten gone in a decade.
WHO IS GOING TO TRAIN THE NEXT GENERATION?
We currently employ six apprentices and have supported more than 30 people through qualifications. Their wages alone cost us around £100,000 a year — before education, mentoring, products and equipment. And once qualified, it takes another two or three years to build a strong, profitable client column.
We don’t train people to send them elsewhere. We want them to stay, progress and earn well.
The Government’s new £2,000 hiring payment for small employers, and the National Insurance exemption for apprentices under 25, are genuinely welcome. But £2,000 doesn’t come close to the real cost of turning a school leaver into a confident, competent professional.
A SKILLED PROFESSION, STILL UNDERVALUED
Our professionals spend years mastering chemistry and colour formulation, hair and skin structure, allergies and contraindications, precision cutting, consultation and business skills.
We work with chemicals. We work with people’s confidence and self-esteem. We support clients through illness, hair loss, grief, mental health challenges and major life changes.
We’re not simply cutting hair or painting nails. We’re skilled professionals making a real difference to people’s lives.
So why isn’t our industry given the same respect as construction or engineering — when we employ almost as many people?
And a question worth asking: in an industry with a predominantly female workforce, how much has the historic undervaluing of women’s work contributed to this? I’m not suggesting it’s the only reason. But it’s a conversation we need to have.
WHERE IS OUR SUPPORT?
This summer, the Government confirmed a 20% business rates cut for pubs from April 2027, on top of the 15% relief already in place. I’m genuinely pleased for them.
But where is the equivalent for salons? Where are the campaigns encouraging people to support their local salon? Where is the long-term plan to reverse the collapse in apprenticeships?
Other countries have acted. Ireland cut VAT on labour-intensive services, including hairdressing, to 9%.
I’m grateful to the British Beauty Council, the British Hair Consortium and the National Hair & Beauty Federation for campaigning on our behalf. MPs are now raising this with you too. Those conversations now need to become policy.
WHAT WE’RE ASKING FOR IN THIS BUDGET
- Cut VAT to 10% on labour-intensive hair and beauty services, as the industry-wide campaign is calling for. At the very least, introduce tiered rates around the threshold so growing and employing isn’t punished.
- Give salons business rates relief, matching what pubs have received.
- Introduce an apprentice retention payment, paid when an apprentice qualifies and stays with their employer for 12 months.
- Fund the whole apprenticeship journey, not just the hire — support that reflects the two to three years it takes to become a competent professional.
- Tackle disguised self-employment, so salons aren’t pushed out of employing people just to stay viable.
- Introduce professional registration for hair and beauty, recognising the skill, chemistry and responsibility involved.
- Meet with our sector before the Budget is finalised, and include salons in your high street and skills plans.
WE’RE NOT ASKING FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT
At Serenity Loves we create jobs, train six apprentices, offer work experience to young people not in education, employment or training, invest in qualifications and career progression, support our community, and aim to be the best-paid salon in our area.
We’re doing everything we’re encouraged to do. Celebrating apprenticeships must go hand in hand with making them affordable for the employers providing them.
Chancellor — and Peterborough MP’s — I would welcome you into Serenity Loves. Meet our apprentices. Spend a day with our educators. See the commitment behind the awards and the reality behind the brand.
I’m proud of what we’ve built. I’m proud of our industry. And I want to keep employing, training and investing in people for many years to come.
British Beauty Week is a wonderful celebration. But celebration must be matched by recognition, respect and meaningful action.
Because if we keep losing the salons that train the next generation, what future are we leaving behind?
Jo Bevilacqua, Founder & Director, Serenity Loves Hair & Beauty ❤️
If you work in our industry, own a salon or simply value your local hairdresser or beauty therapist: please share this, tag your MP, and write to them before 28 October. Let’s make sure our voices are heard.
#BritishBeautyWeek #SupportYourLocalSalon #SaveOurSalons #HairAndBeautyIndustry #Apprenticeships #SmallBusiness #VATReform
