The owner of one of the UK’s biggest restaurant groups has criticised the government’s hardline immigration stance as “retrograde” and “bonkers”.
David Loewi, co-owner of the group behind high-end London restaurants Le Pont de la Tour, Coq D’Argent and Quaglino’s, who is also chairman of the Restaurant Association trade body, said erecting barriers to the employment of workers from Europe would be “extremely detrimental and would stop the growth of businesses”.
In an interview with the Guardian, Loewi said the Restaurant Association would be “lobbying hard” against any block on employing talent from the EU and the government only had to look at the fall in the value of the pound in recent months to see how confidence in Britain was being affected by its stance.
About 60% of workers at the London restaurants of Loewi’s group, D&D London, come from overseas, a similar proportion to other restaurant businesses in the capital. UK-wide, a fifth of workers in the accommodation and food services industries come from overseas. The majority of those workers come from the EU.
Loewi said the anti-immigration stance taken by the government, combined with news reports of an increase in racist and xenophobic behaviour, had already made employing staff from abroad more difficult.
“There are so many UK industries that would not be able to work without EU employees. We welcome English workers but we shouldn’t be looking at where people come from if they can do a wonderful job. [Overseas workers] make London what it is and are important, certainly in the restaurant and hotel trades and the NHS,” Loewi said.
His comments come as the government faces growing criticism over its immigration stance since the Conservative conference when the home secretary, Amber Rudd, said it was considering requiring companies to declare the proportion of international staff in their workforce. Rudd later backtracked on the proposal, saying it was “not something we’re definitely going to do”.
At the Tory conference she also announced a crackdown on overseas students and work visas, and pledged to prevent migrants “taking jobs British people could do”.
Loewi said Rudd’s comments were “completely bonkers, very negative and upsetting for a lot of fellow Europeans and people from all over the world who work in London and the rest of the UK. People will twice about coming here, paying their taxes.
“The restaurant business in London pays very well and conditions are good. It’s an exciting and fantastic career because you can move up and start your own business. But we can only grow and open more restaurants if we can find the staff. [Rudd’s suggestions] are a retrograde and negative step.”
D&D recently revealed a 3% rise in sales to £107.8m and 16% rise in underlying profits to £13m. Last year it ditched plans for a London listing and saw its slowest sales growth in years as diners reined in their spending ahead of and immediately after the Brexit vote.
Des Gunewardena, Loewi’s fellow co-owner of D&D, said the government needed to be “armed very clearly with the positive impact of people coming from the EU on industries like ours and the NHS so they can negotiate rationally”.
He believes it is unlikely the government will ultimately block the hiring of skilled workers from the EU, although D&D is already working to train more Britons to work in its kitchens and dining rooms.
June, the month of the the EU referendum, was “rubbish” but individuals had swiftly returned to dining out two weeks after the vote, he said.
“For two weeks afterwards it was doom and gloom. But then the financial markets didn’t collapse and everyone said: ‘We’re not going to lose our jobs tomorrow. We’ve had the vote and going to Brexit, but we don’t know what the shape of that is going to be for the next few years and so I’m going back out to lunch and dinner.’ Since then the business has been trading strongly.
“Individual consumers are very positive. Going out to eat in a restaurant is a short-term decision not based on how things will be financially in three years’ time. They are spending money and I think that’s going to continue.”
D&D, the vast majority of whose 34 restaurants are in London, is planning to power into the north of the UK with hopes of opening in Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham.
The company opened its first UK restaurants outside the capital – Angelica and Crafthouse – in the Trinity shopping centre in Leeds in 2013.
Gunewardena said the Leeds sites had been much more successful than expected and two more restaurants would be opening in the city later this year in the Victoria Gate development. The group’s first site in Manchester opens next year and it is seeking sites in other major UK cities.
“In London there is lots of demand but lots of restaurants. There is not as much demand in Leeds or Manchester or Edinburgh but there aren’t as many restaurants,” Gunewardena said.
