The president of the National Hairdressers Federation has pleaded with senior members of parliament to recognise potential impacts from new legislation.

Harry Walker has written a series of open letters to chancellor Alistair Darling, George Osborne, shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat and shadow chancellor.

Walker has expressed concerns over the Small Business Act for Europe, which includes proposals to increase the VAT exemption threshold to €100,000.

The Act also includes a proposal to offer member states the option to apply reduced VAT rates for locally supplied services, including those of labour intensive services.

According to Walker, this has the potential to cripple the hairdressing profession, as there is minimal ways for a salon to offset the level of VAT paid to HM Revenue and Customs.

'I wrote to Alistair Darling in July asking whether he would seek to apply the European proposals to our sector. The reply from his department seemingly rejected this out of hand. We have again written to him urging him to reconsider his position, a position which seems strangely at odds with the government’s current declaration of support for small businesses to help them through this unprecedented economic crisis,' Walker said in one of the letters.

Further Reading:

EU ministers divided over change to VAT directive