Beauty entrepreneur Caroline Hirons has urged the government and Andy Burnham to grant beauty salons a 20 per cent business rates cut to stem rising costs.
Hirons, who owns the Skin Rocks brand and serves on the board of the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology, warned that salon owners can no longer absorb escalating expenses. She told The Mail that the government must stop continuing to overlook the businesses and women responsible for creating economic growth.
The skincare expert stressed that running a salon is not a hobby and that the industry is not a frivolous extra. She pointed out that salon owners must pay rent, rates, energy bills, insurance, stock, equipment, training, and wages before a single customer walks through the door.
Without financial relief, Hirons warned that businesses face immense pressure to raise prices, reduce job opportunities for young people at the start of their working lives, or close down completely in the worst cases.
Calls for equal support with hospitality
Hirons urged ministers to offer beauty salons tax relief equivalent to the 20 per cent rates reduction promised to pubs and live music venues. While acknowledging that hospitality firms deserve support, she highlighted that beauty businesses support jobs in every town across the country and should be treated with the same regard.
She criticized ministers for praising female entrepreneurs while failing to support a sector dominated by women. Hirons stated that when a predominantly female, £28.3bn industry asks to be included in the same conversation as pubs and live music venues, it is still treated like an optional extra, adding that the contradiction needs calling out.
Government policy and industry reaction
The intervention follows an announcement by the Prime Minister last month of a 20 per cent business rates cut for hospitality firms next year, saving pubs £1,100 on average. The £100 million policy will be funded by slashing reliefs for gambling arcades and vape shops that do not add much to community life.
The policy has angered other high street businesses grappling with tough cost increases, including wages, National Insurance contributions, and energy bills. Business rates are a UK property tax levied on commercial premises.
Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, whose ambassadors include Charlotte Tilbury, Kate Moss, and Trinny Woodall, wrote in The Mail earlier this month that ignoring beauty businesses would be a mistake. According to the organization's latest Value of Beauty report, the sector contributed £28.3 billion to the UK economy in 2025.
