At the Downing Street tea to mark London Fashion Week’s 40th birthday, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer emphatically pledged the Government’s support to the industry. But was her colleague Jeremy Hunt listening?
In last week’s Budget, the Chancellor pointedly ignored the myriad pleas to ditch the much-loathed “tourist tax” which the Centre for Economics and Business Research has calculated costs £10.7billion in lost GDP and is putting off millions of tourists from stopping in London. While incentives were dished out to other creative industries — including film and TV — fashion, which is hugely more lucrative for the economy, got nada.
