EXCLUSIVE: The northern town’s brightest cheerleader is begging Andy Burnham to walk her promenade because although Britain’s good, it could easily be great.
Kate Shane MBE, 57, is the managing director of Blackpool Tourism Ltd (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
A UK tourism chief has invited Andy Burnham to her seaside town, after warning Labour they are failing the nation’s job-creating holiday and hospitality industry. Kate Shane MBE, 57, is the managing director of Blackpool Tourism Ltd, set up by the Lancashire resort’s council to run its holiday industry and attractions, like Blackpool Tower.
Raised near Blackpool’s golden sands, as a child she danced with her dad in the Tower Ballroom and screamed with thrills on the rollercoasters at the town’s 130 year-old Pleasure Beach Resort. Now Kate’s sat with the Express on the promenade to urge Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to see for themselves how high VAT, business rates and Labour’s National Insurance (NI) rise are damaging the sector.
Blackpool is still fun in the sun – especially with our UK heatwaves (Image: Lee McLean/SWNS)
But she also invited the PM to meet young workers in Blackpool relishing their first jobs courtesy of hospitality and tourism – and how helping the industry could boost the UK’s workforce and the nation’s coffers.
Kate told us: “They haven’t done anything that has helped this industry since they’ve been in power, Labour – but they so easily could and they’ve got time.
“I would like Mr Burnham and Mr Healey to recognise UK hospitality, entertainment and tourism as a big, growth industry that is a big earner for the Treasury but also a massive employer.
“The sector provides those first-time jobs, it’s the gateway into employment for young people, it supports people from a well-being perspective because it’s so social.
“Your first job sets your life up and we all remember it, the memories that you made having that first job – how you felt having that first job.”
Kate wanted to use her Express interview to “100%” invite Mr Burnham to Blackpool to see the northern tourism powerhouse that is the resort in action.
She remarked: “I would show him round, introduce him to our great young staff doing their first job with the rest of their lives in front of them and all that hidden talent that can be brought to the fore by this industry.”
And pointing to Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort’s new £8.7m thrilling gyro swing ride Aviktas, that takes you a terrifying 138ft in the air, she quipped: “I’d get him to go on Aviktas …. and from the ground wave at him!”
Kate with her brother and parents on the log flume at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1971. (Image: Kate Shane MBE)
Kate and her brother Steven grew up around Blackpool with her parents Bill and Frances running a guest house.
She recalled wonderful days on North Pier, eating crab and cockles at the still open Robert’s Oyster Bar and visiting the town’s famous circus in the Tower.
Kate told us: “It was fantastic; Blackpool was somewhere you went that was a little bit bonkers.”
Showing us pictures of her family at Pleasure Beach Resort, she gushed: “Everything was fast and fun. It still is! I remember going into the ballroom aged five or six and standing on my dad’s toes while he’s moving me around the dance floor!”
She started her career in finance at First Leisure before working for Merlin running their attractions in the town including back then Blackpool Tower.
Years later, when in her current role, she negotiated with Merlin for the council to finally take back the running of the 518ft-tall landmark that was inspired by the Eiffel Tower and opened in 1894.
Kate admitted “Blackpool’s changed” but stressed: “Yet we’re still entertaining people. There’s still kids belly-laughing at clowns.
“There are still mum and dad getting the buzz from taking their children to these experiences. We’re also having a glorious summer of sun.”
Kate loves Blackpool’s promenade (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
When we met Kate, Blackpool seafront was not only welcoming 300,000 visitors to its Air Show, but 8,000 mohawk-wearing, leather-clad punk rockers for the ‘Rebellion Festival’ at the Winter Gardens.
Kate proudly remarked: “There’s nowhere else like it. There’s northern hospitality and then there’s Blackpool hospitality!
“When I go anywhere, if the person that is looking after me, talks to me and is interested, I view the place differently.
“We don’t know whether somebody that’s come here with their two children, if that’s the only trip they can afford to do this year. That’s the key to Blackpool.
“You can go to a restaurant with average food yet if the staff were brilliant, you’ll return next year. But somewhere with Michelin-star quality food and a rude waiter? You won’t go back again.”
Returning to the economy, she wants “business rates reform” across all hospitality, telling how one hotelier she knew bought the empty property next door to expand his site – only to see his rates soar by 150%. She said: “So what’s the incentive to grow?”
She also said Labour’s 2025 rise in the employer National Insurance (NI) – and their lowering of the threshold for when you have to start paying – has hit the town hard.
She explained: “Lots of people want part-time work in Blackpool; they’re caring for elderly parents or young children, or studying. We need lots of staff for the busy times and less for quieter times.
“National Insurance has a direct impact on the bottom line but Blackpool is predominantly value-seeking families so we can’t pass on cost increases.
“For example if a hotel’s business rates has gone up by 150% and there’s a 30% increase in payroll cost – due to National Living Wage increases, the NI threshold lowering and the NI rise – they can’t say ‘I used to charge £90 for bed and breakfast so now I’ll charge £120’, because customers won’t come.
“So instead they absorb it, shed staff and struggle in survival mode. But if I’m attracting people to come here for three nights to spend their money instead of flying to Spain, that helps UK growth.”
Kate chatting to the Express last week in Blackpool (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
Lastly she took a huge swipe at the level of VAT for the sector, saying the UK is “completely disadvantaged from an international market perspective.”
At the start of the summer, the Government launched the ‘Great British Summer Savings’ scheme, temporarily cutting VAT from 20% to 5% until September, lowering costs on family attractions, children’s events and kids’ meals.
But Kate wants to see a permanent VAT drop for the whole sector: “I’m not saying the Treasury can afford for it to be 5% forever but if it went to 10% or 12% permanently, that helps businesses cope with the NI changes.
“Then coming for one night can afford two, and those visiting for two nights can come for four. Businesses then need more staff and we employ more locals.”
A recent survey by UKHospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Ulster, showed the fragility of the sector.
More than 70% of UK hospitality operators cited VAT, food and drink inflation and increased staffing costs created by the Treasury as their top challenges.
Their ‘the VATs The Problem’ campaign calls on Labour in the October Budget to cut VAT for hospitality to 10% in line with most European countries.
A seagull swoops down to say hello! (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
I asked Kate if, since their 2024 General Election landslide, Labour has grasped hospitality’s importance? She smiled: “I’m not sure any government has.”
But she explained how many Blackpool businesses, like the Pleasure Beach Resort, now offer apprenticeships to give young people that first taste of work: “This industry can change lives. There’s kids in situations in this town you can’t fathom.
“We’re sat here now, looking out over a promenade where people are setting up an air show but there’s kids who can never engage with this because of their home life. We need to break that and get them work.
“We must stop kids thinking ‘Mum and Dad don’t work, I don’t work’ and instead think ‘I can be the master of my own destiny’.”
This year Pleasure Beach Resort is 130 years-old and Kate, awarded an MBE last year for services to tourism and the local community – hopes in another century the resort will still be “the bonkers place that it is.”
She beamed: “There will always be a Blackpool. We will all be dust but the Tower will still be upright, the tide will come in twice a day and the sun will still shine – and it will still be a fun place, a safe place and a family place.”
We put Kate’s offer to Burnham to visit Blackpool to his office at No.10 but bizarrely received a response instead from the Treasury.
A spokesperson said: “The Chancellor has prioritised support for the hospitality industry in his first week in the job when he cut business rates by 20% for pubs, social clubs and live music venues – saving thousands of locals over £1,000 a year.
“This is on top of our Great British Summer Savings, which is increasing footfall for businesses, including tourist destinations in the North West and boosting local economies.”