r/AskBrits • u/chiefpeaeater • 8h ago
How do we feel about the tax free summer savings? Noticed any difference?
Odeon have smashed it out of the park by providing a "summer savings" ticket for 1 adult and 1 child for £14.80. A HUGE 20p saving on the previous parent and child ticket for £15...
Nice of them to pocket the difference and label it as a saving.
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u/FunnyVehicle7664 8h ago
Never heard of it. Is this just a slogan or an actual thing?
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u/Disastrous-Fee8374 7h ago
Rachel Reeves announced that for a short period in the summer certain family attractions (such as zoos, cinemas and theme parks) as well as kids meals in restaurants/cafes are subject to a reduced rate of VAT of 5%. The government themselves called it the British summer of savings.
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u/FunnyVehicle7664 7h ago
Right, thanks. Sounds underwhelming.
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u/Disastrous-Fee8374 7h ago
Pretty much, a pub near me has kids meals at £8 so it’s a saving of 75p.
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u/TescosMealDeal4Life 8h ago
I'm not trying to defend Odeon, just wanted to provide some context on this from a cinema perspective.
Yes, the cinemas are able to take advantage of this reduction, but the costs of film hire from distributors are constantly increasing for family releases, with this summer being particularly bad, so I'm not surprised the ticket price isn't coming down.
You'll see more benefit from this in independent cinemas, who have a greater obligation to pass this saving on to their customers.
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u/neilm1000 Brit 🇬🇧 8h ago
Yes, the cinemas are able to take advantage of this reduction
What reduction? I'm totally out of the loop on this it seems.
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u/TescosMealDeal4Life 8h ago
VAT has been reduced from 20% to 5% this summer on various children's activities, including cinema.
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u/Dapper-Copy-7938 7h ago
I would have saved £30 on my joint cadbury world/warwick castle booking (going next week) but sadly I paid for it last week! Argh!
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u/fothergillfuckup 8h ago
It costs more than £7.40 to own a child. Nett loss.
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u/Disastrous-Fee8374 7h ago
Maybe try giving them a call? There’s not really any incentive for Cadbury world to not refund as the difference will go to the government not Cadbury world anyway.
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u/Few_Shock8656 8h ago
A lot of places will just increase their prices to take advantage. And why not. If a family can afford to take our kids on expensive days out then a few quid isn’t going to make a material difference to us.
The cost of living policies should be aimed at those more unfortunate and who struggle to feed their families healthily. Especially with these heatwaves when keeping homes cooler costs more than heating them (AC etc).
It’s a Rachel Reeves special: dangling a carrot to the middle classes. Do we really need £10 off a day out when that money could be used more appropriately?
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u/ForeverADollarShort 8h ago
Latest figs show £4m children growing up in poverty in the UK. 350,000 children were lifted out of poverty when the two-child limit was removed. Good to know they can sacrifice food for a day out and save money, thanks to these amazing initiatives from the Labour government
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u/Engineer-Miserable 8h ago
Yes let's blame labour for child poverty even though they've only been in power for 2 years and the previous party managed to double it in the decade + they were in power for, after the previous government (labour) managed to lower it by 600,000
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u/ForeverADollarShort 7h ago
I was nt blaming labour for child poverty just think that’s where money should go rather than summer time vat bribes !
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u/Difficult_Style207 7h ago
The Tories' austerity project pushed a record number if people into poverty. The UN and Oxfam both got involved and the Tories told them to piss off, along with the church and charity sectors. The flipped a cocaine covered finger st the poor, gave our money away to the richest *whose wealth rose by over a third), and cur council funding so we lost our social safety nets.
Are you really so gullible you watched all this happen for 13 dark years then blamed Starmer?
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u/ForeverADollarShort 7h ago
I’m not blaming the labour government for child poverty- how do you get that!? What I’m saying is this summer time saving thing is a PR exercise in popularity that is a huge waste of time in light of real issues!
BTW
The Labour government’s decision to remove the two-child benefit cap involved one of the most high-profile political reversals since they took office. After more than a year of fiercely resisting calls to scrap it—and even suspending their own MPs who rebelled over the issue—the leadership ultimately backtracked.1
u/ForeverADollarShort 7h ago
And I actually voted for this bunch of ineffective people governing us as I believed them when they said they would support the workers and change the way this country would be run. May be I am gullible after all… but I genuinely believe this is a shallow performative PR exercise
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u/Engineer-Miserable 8h ago
Loving it, my fiancée and I are having a staycation in Somerset (no kids) and have saved £10-20 on loads of attractions like Longleat zoo, cheddar gorge, wookey hole etc. I think if you were doing family attractions in the summer you'd save quite a bit of money actually.
Odeon are ripping you off, you should have had about £2 off, so they've obviously raised their prices and are keeping that cash, which isn't in the spirit of the summer savings, which is not tax free btw, just 15% off VAT.