Peter Vosper: Are Devon and Cornwall prepared for the holiday visitors?

As more and more people are struggling to deal with the rise in inflation, the south-west expects holidaymakers to arrive in larger numbers this summer.

But are businesses prepared for them? Faced with the increases in employment minimum rates and the rise in NHI, all businesses are having to cut their expenditure. There are also many young people who are finding it difficult to get jobs, as even if businesses have avoided cutting staff, they are not taking on the same number of apprentices they would in normal circumstances.

You may think this would be advantageous to the hospitality business, but I have seen many job offers in shops and restaurants offering accommodation as an added incentive, which suggests finding part-time and casual labour is a problem. There has also been a reduction in the amount of earnings before NHI payments start, so employers have an incentive to employ more people at fewer hours.

This has resulted in many hospitality venues such as pubs, restaurants and bars reducing their opening hours by opening fewer days in the week. In spite of all this, the excellent service and the area's outstanding beauty make our area a first choice for many holidaymakers, which will help many small businesses to remain profitable and ensure repeat bookings in the future.

The other big news item for anyone learning to drive has been the highlighting of the cost of learning to do so. A DVSA survey completed by more than 5000 approved driving instructors in September shows prices have increased dramatically in the past few years.

In the survey the most common price bracket for a one-hour lesson was £36 to £40 per hour. Only 31.5 per cent of driving instructors charged £35 per hour or less, which was half the number compared with the survey in 2023. The number that said they charged more than £40 per hour was 20.8 per cent, nearly triple as many as in 2023.

As I have said before in this column, driving a car is essential for many who take their children to school, go to work or visit friends and relatives that need help. Public transport may be too expensive, not accessible, or at worst, not available at all. Two thirds of people who commute to work drive in, and 45 per cent of five- to ten-year-olds are taken to school by car. (Department for Transport figures from 2023 show).

Not only are lessons becoming more expensive, but people are having to take more lessons. That’s because of a huge practical test backlog, which means learners are having to take lessons for longer to keep up their skills.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has pledged to reduce the average waiting time for a driving test to seven weeks by summer 2026.

Stewart Lochrie, chair of the Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council, notes that driving instructors are having to pay more for their expenses of buying or leasing a car, fuel, insurance and maintenance, and therefore “We have costs to cover as well, and if the things we need to run our business go up, then our prices will have to go up as well.”