Devon hair salon owner 'having to sell family home' to save his business

Nathan told ITV News' Sam Blackledge how the economic crisis was affecting his life.

The owner of a hair salon in east Devon says he has been forced to sell his family home to keep the business afloat.

Nathan Plumridge, who runs Energy Hair near Topsham, is calling on the Government to lower VAT rates and is warning the industry faces serious problems if the financial crisis continues.

"I never thought I would ever be in the situation where I would be having to sell my family home to remove capital to put back into my business, to pay debts, pay bills, and get myself back to a level playing field."

Nathan said he has worked hard to build a thriving family business, but admits the financial struggle is taking its toll."You're pushing yourself to a different place," he said.

"The conversations I'm having with my wife and going, 'I'm really sorry, my darling, but you know, I'm here for the long term. So this is an investment that I'm making in my business because I believe very strongly in it. But I've got to get through.'"

Nathan is calling on the Government to lower VAT rates, and address what he sees as an unfair system which penalises successful salons."Most hairdressing businesses that are self-employed don't pay VAT," he said. "They keep themselves under that threshold. I cannot do that. So that model needs to change because there's 27 per cent of us that are left in the UK who employ our staff and pay more tax than the 73 per cent that are left over. That's not fair."A spokesman for HM Treasury said: "Our decisive action helped to more than halve inflation last year, which is protecting businesses around the country from higher costs that they would otherwise have faced.

“We’ve also recently extended measures to support hairdressers, including a 75% reduction on their business rates bills, worth £2.4 billion, and energy bills protection."