The hospitality sector must, like football fans across England & Wales, be hoping that the national teams reach the World Cup final.

With the sector still struggling with rising costs and staff shortages anything that will encourage people to go out will be welcomed by the industry, particularly as there was little support in the budget and the near 10% increase in the National Living Wage will add to their ever-increasing costs.

We were pleased to hear the comment from Sir Dave Ramsden, a deputy governor of the Bank of England who told a conference last Thursday that although his preference is “towards further tightening” to bring inflation under control, he felt that interest rates may need to be cut if households and businesses come under greater financial pressure than expected.

This will be welcome news to many but of course his view may not be shared by the majority of his fellow MPC members. Regular readers will know our view and we hope that Sir Dave is able to convince his colleagues that the current base rate is doing too much damage to UK Plc.

We would welcome a surprise reduction in base rates as such a move will help those businesses in the hospitality sector – not least as we feel sure that people would go out to celebrate – as well as bringing respite to us all.

If you are involved with, or know of any business or individuals that are struggling financially we suggest that you talk to us.

The directors of SKSi look at a formal insolvency process as the last resort – not the first. It is their long held belief – borne out with proven experience – that seeking advice at the first sign of financial pressures will lead to a more favourable outcome. Conversely, doing nothing and hoping the problem will go away is far more likely to lead to a critical outcome and insolvency.

We are always available for an initial zero cost assessment which can be arranged by contacting Alistair Dickson.