The organisers of a banned “Wedding Funeral” at Parliament Square have vowed to continue with their campaign after the Government’s Covid-19 financial support packages excluded most of the UK’s Asian Wedding Industry, it has emerged.
The first of its kind protest with 200 performers was designed to highlight the plight of the wedding industry. Now, with the national lockdown 2.0 in place and with Home Secretary issuing restrictions public rallies, their protest has been delayed. But the Asian Wedding Association UK (AWAUK) is determined to organise their protest performance at the earliest when these restrictions are lifted. The Asian wedding sector forms a substantial part of the wider wedding industry, which is worth £14.7 billion to the UK economy and employs 400,000 people. AWAUK was set up as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already seen more than 20,000 Asian weddings being cancelled, hundreds of businesses forced to close and thousands of workers forced into unemployment.
Neal Khanna, owner of the Clay Oven and one of the AWAUK’s Founder Members commented, “Whilst the most recent extension to the Furlough Scheme may help to save employment in the short-term. But the absence of any support directly to the businesses means that these jobs cannot be sustained as businesses will fold due to zero revenue and ongoing direct costs. Employers will still be expected to meet NI and Pension contributions for Furloughed employees. More importantly, the emotional and psychological turmoil in terms of numerous postponements, cancelled weddings, potential lost deposits is unfathomable.”
Unfortunately, from the onset, the Government’s refusal to recognise the wedding industry in its definition of ‘hospitality’ has meant, Asian wedding companies have been excluded from grants and rates relief that have been given to other hospitality businesses. In May 2020, AWAUK members wrote directly to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to highlight the unfairness of the policy and demanded action. Despite the letter being endorsed by over 40 MPs and the CBI, the organisation has yet to receive a response. Instead, Business Secretary Alok Sharma subsequently argued that businesses in these sectors were not commercially viable and suggested that laid-off staff should “retrain and find themselves better jobs”. This contradicted their own definition of “viable” when approving CBILS loans for many within the sector.
AWAUK, along with the Association of British Wedding Businesses (ABWB), the Wedding Venues Support Group (WVSG) and the National Association of Wedding Professionals (NAWP), on 9th November 2020 have finally secured a key Debate in Parliament set for 9th November 2020.
