kerry

"I never wanted to do anything else but be a hairdresser," said Kerry Larcher, who opened her first salon when she was 21-years-old.

Cutting a client's hair, Kerry explained she could not afford to take on any new apprentices this year and had been forced to reduce the hours of her current 12 apprentices to the minimum.

Kerry added the way the chancellor is treating salons, which overwhelmingly employ women, "totally goes against the objectives of the government" in growing the economy and supporting workers.

"If you look at a cafe, one waiter can serve several tables of four customers in the space of an hour and the cafe can reclaim the VAT on all the food and drink they serve," Kerry explained.

For Kerry's salon, the Vanilla Rooms, the tax increases have added a "devastating" £23,000 extra to her annual costs, through a combination of the threshold at which employers start to pay Nics on staff wages being lowered to £5,000 and changes to business rates.