Doncaster wildlife park boss says Labour has cost attraction £850,000 - with jobs at risk

The boss of Doncaster’s Yorkshire Wildlife Park says Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget has put staff at the Branton park at risk.

The Labour Chancellor announced in October a hike to employers' National Insurance contributions and an increase in the National Living Wage.

Now CEO John Minion, has told the Daily Express that she is taking the wrong approach as her policies take their toll on his and other venues.

Mr Minion told the newspaper: “The changes have made a phenomenally negative impact on our business.

"The budget will cost us £650,000 in direct wage costs with a further £200,000 hit expected from the wider impact on trading conditions and costs."

He said entry prices have already had to be increased due to inflation and that further price increases were not an option.

Despite not having to make any immediate redundancies, the leisure chief told the Express that the park will have to reduce employment, including seasonal contracted employees.

This is expected to be the equivalent of 35 fewer full-time employees over the next 12 months.

However, the Express reported that hours worked by current employees are being cut, and when asked if there was a possibility of having to let staff go in the future, Mr Minion said: “Inevitably, and again that’s across the sector. We are all in that situation.

“If the economy doesn’t recover, and it doesn’t move past this stagnated period, we’re all going to be at risk of making redundancies in the future. But that’s not to say we are over the next 12 months."

“Everybody is in the same situation” across the leisure sector, Mr Minion added, because days out with the kids are “not essential” as people seek to save money.

In regards to current employees, the park is having to cut developmental training - courses that are not something employees “absolutely have to do” - for different roles, from catering and HR to animal keepers.

These include management, mental health and upskilling courses, which, the park’s chief said, was disappointing, as he remains “very passionate” about these things.

“I’m not sure the approach from the Government has really looked at how this impacts the economy moving forward,” he said. “Yes, today they’ve had a bit of a quick win in terms of we’ve seen some growth, but I suspect moving forward it’s not going to be the case.”

Mr Minion added: “We have grown almost every year outside of the pandemic and it means that this year will be a struggle. These changes have not really been thought out. “

Further, the park boss revealed that his venue would have been opening a new animal attraction this year, but this has now been postponed.

He said: “Without this impact, we would have been opening a new animal attraction this year and taking on more staff-boosting growth in the region and supporting the local visitor economy.”

Yorkshire Wildlife Park stressed that the “expert care” given to its animals will not be affected, and its “stable business” means the possibility of having to let go of some of them in the future to save money is “not something that we are concerned about.”