The Chancellor raised employer NICs by 1.2 percentage points to 15% at the Budget on October 30, while cutting the secondary threshold at which contributions are paid on each salary to £5,000 from £9,100.
The changes take effect from April and come amid a bruising period for the hospitality industry, which has struggled in the face of cost hikes and the protracted cost of living crisis.
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Mr Nairn, who recently closed a restaurant in Bridge of Allan he ran with wife Julia amid a bitter cash dispute with their landlord, declared that hospitality operators have no cash resources to lean on following the pandemic.
“We are facing all kinds of problems, almost a perfect storm of labour costs, of material costs, of utilities costs [which] make it incredibly difficult for hospitality businesses to flourish in this current environment,” he said on BBC Scotland’s Debate Night programme this evening.
“And there are things that could be done. Government could pull levers. We could look at the VAT [valued-added tax] for hospitality. We could look at [non] domestic rates relief. All of those things would save an industry and save jobs.
“It is not just one industry. Government has to look at all industries. They have to care about the economy. The economy has to be strong to encourage enterprise, to encourage the creativity of entrepreneurs who employ people who then have jobs and pay taxes. That is how the system works. At the moment, it feels like the system is broken.
“The Chancellor has just announced an increase in national insurance. For a beleaguered economy, to whack on a couple of percent [percentage points to national insurance] … and it is not just percentage increase in national insurance, it is the reduction of the threshold at the point people are starting to pay.
“In my industry, we are on the ropes at the moment, we don’t have any fat. That fat went with Covid… so the minute you ask us to raise more taxes, we will have to pass that on to you, the consumer.”
Earlier in the show, which was recorded live in Stirling, Mr Nairn said a failure of the democratic process had allowed Donald Trump to return to power in the US, as he shared his concern over the impact his presidency will have on Scotland’s international trade.
The hospitality veteran was scathing about the failure of the Democrats in the US which enabled President Trump to move into a “vacuum” in American politics and go on to do the “crazy stuff” he is now carrying out in power.
Mr Nairn slammed mainstream political parties for “not delivering what ordinary people want”, declaring doing so was “not rocket science”.
And he added his voice to concerns over the impact on Scottish exports such as whisky, salmon and cashmere should Trump follow through on his threat to impose tariffs in the UK.
The Herald revealed last month that a cash row between the Nairns and landlord Douglas Wood led to the closure of their restaurant in Bridge of Allan last year.
The couple argue that a management contract agreed with Mr Wood to operate the former Jam Jar restaurant in 2019, and traded most recently as Nairn’s, had become “onerous” following the huge changes which swept across the hospitality sector with the pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis.
The Nairns claimed attempts to renegotiate the deal with Mr Wood were rejected. However, Mr Wood flatly rejects the claim that the management contract had become “onerous”, declaring that many hospitality operators had been able to adapt to the changing trading conditions.
