Britain’s historic piers face a perilous future as Rachel Reeves’ ”inhumane” Budget is gutting the industry that was once the pride of the country. Described as the “Disney Castle” of coastal towns, the foundations of these Great British institutions are being shaken to their very core by the Chancellor’s minimum wage rise and National Insurance hike.

Some of Britain’s most famous piers have told the Daily Express the Budget, in addition to rising insurance and energy prices, is having a significant impact on the industry, warning of increased costs, fewer jobs and reduced opening hours. Rory Holburn, owner of Bournemouth Pier and Cromer Pier, has worked in the industry for 24 years and told the Express he thinks the Government “don’t have a clue what they’re doing”. Together, the piers are facing a £180,000 hit to their bottom line which Rory describes as “horrific”.

“We hope that we can survive it,” Rory says as we chat at the end of Bournemouth Pier, looking out across a swirling English Channel.

“Maybe 20% of hospitality businesses are going to go under in the next two years… we just need to make sure we’re not in that 20%.”

Rory says his piers are “reasonably well placed to survive” with low levels of debt but warns there will be no investment for the next two years and prices are being put up, starting with a rise of 7.5%.

Bournemouth Pier, in Dorset, and Cromer Pier, in Norfolk, are popular holiday hotspots.

Like much of the pier industry, the business is reliant on good weather, the weekends and school holidays.

No redundancies are planned at the two piers but seasonal staffing levels will be reduced to help ease the increased costs caused by the Budget.

The number of full-time equivalent workers – the majority of whom are local people – at the height of summer is set to be slashed by more than 20% to under 200 across both piers.

Rory says he believes the Government has begun a “long-term anti-business, business-ignorant approach”, with “socialist” Budget measures impacting those at the start of their working life the most.

“Inhumane, I would call it, because it is ignorant of the people that do the graft at the bottom end.

“It’s all very well to sit in a city thinking that money just happens in banks and happens in big spreadsheets but the people are cleaning tables and getting their first job.

“I started off as a kid, clearing tables and washing pots, so many of us started at that bottom and have grown through it, and they [the Government] are destroying all of that for the youngsters.

“It’s massive ignorance. It’s a total ignorance of business.”

Bournemouth Pier sits in the middle of miles of golden sand, stretching almost as far as the eye can see.

For many locals and visitors, the pier is a key part of Bournemouth’s charm.

Ann Hunt, 74, is here with her brother Brian Inott, 73, who have been regular visitors from the Midlands since they were children.

She says: “It [the pier industry] is part of Englishness, it’s part of our heritage. There’s no other country that have piers and all this. It’s part of being British.”

Also enjoying a stroll along the pier is Jennie Jones, 34, who is visiting her uncle Andrew Smith, 78, who lives in Bournemouth.

Jennie, from Wiltshire, has fond memories of the pier as a child and now as a parent.

She said: “I used to come and go to the theatre on the end and more recently I come down with my children. Lots of lovely memories from my childhood and then for my children as well.

“A lot of my childhood memories are to do with piers, they’re part of the community that people expect when you live in a coastal town and most people associate it with a British holiday at the beach, it’s kind of key.”

There are 63 pleasure piers across the UK, with an estimated 10m visitors per year and contributing millions of pounds to Britain’s £8bn tourism economy, according to the National Piers Society.

Tim Wardley, chairman of the society, told the Express: “Seaside piers are vital drivers of inward investment to the resorts they serve as well as being a part of our historic fabric.

“They increase footfall in visitor numbers, encourage tourists and bring visitors to the seaside encouraging investment and development of our previously neglected seafronts benefiting the whole area.”

Another pier facing challenges as a result of the Budget is Skegness Pier in Lincolnshire, run by the Mellors Group.

Director James Mellors joined the family business as soon as he finished school and said: “I’ve never known a year where so many people in the sector are so scared.”

He tells me the Budget is causing salary costs to skyrocket by £100,000, with the business’ nearby Fantasy Island theme park also seeing a whopping increase of £500,000.

As a result, opening hours are being reduced and less staff will be taken on during the summer.

Two million people visit the pier every year and James is determined to keep prices down for the community despite the soaring costs.

“We cannot pass this on to our customer,” he says passionately.

“It’s not an affluent an area. It’s a historical place where people have gone with their families for years.

“We’re a free to enter park, a free to enter pier. They [the customers] don’t necessarily have a huge disposable income.”

He added: “We don’t want to charge people to come in. The idea of Skegness is people come up there, they can enjoy the area and spend as little or as much as they want.”

Deputy Reform UK leader and MP for Skegness Richard Tice told the Express: “Skegness Pier is amongst many wonderful leisure venues in my constituency that is being hammered by the Budget increases in salary costs.

“The Budget has not fixed but badly damaged the foundations of our economy and caused instability and fear among employers and employees.”

Further down the North Sea coast, Clacton Pier in Essex is facing a similar predicament.

Billy Ball is a “Clacton boy through and through” and alongside his brother is co-owner of this famous pier.

For the first time in their 16 years as owners, they are stopping development of the pier which welcomes nearly 1m visitors per year.

The Budget is having a “massive squeeze”on the business, causing costs to soar by approximately £300,000 a year with seasonal staff to be slashed by around 50%.

As a result, rides will not be opened midweek in June for the first time since the Ball brothers bought this treasured attraction, while rides will not be opened next winter for the first time in four years.

Billy said: “In the seaside amusement industry, we’ve been pioneering in a lot of ways and, for us, to be standing here for the first time and say we’re going to go in reverse, contract and hunker down is almost unheard of for us as a business.

“They [the Government] need to get more in tune with the industry and understand the impact of their decisions.”

Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage told the Express: “Hard-working entrepreneurs like the Clacton Pier owners the Ball brothers and Walton Pier owner Russel Bolesworth have laid out huge amounts of money and taken massive risks to bring back the great British seaside. This Budget by Rachel Reeves is a huge threat to all of it.”

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Ms Reeves’ “anti-business Budget and reckless Jobs Tax is being felt across industries”.

He added: “The Labour Chancellor was warned that her economic policies would drive up costs, lead to fewer jobs and likely reduce operating hours, as businesses struggle to cope.

“Lower growth, fewer jobs, higher prices. That’s Labour’s record in less than eight months. The Labour Chancellor is out of her depth and we’re all paying the price.”

In response, a Treasury spokesperson said: “We delivered a once in a parliament Budget to get growth back into the UK economy after over a decade of stagnation, and many business leaders are confident that the Chancellor’s growth plans will help drive business investment – both the IMF and OECD forecast that the UK will have the fastest economic growth in the European G7 countries.

“At the same time, more than half of employers will either see a cut or no change in their National Insurance bills, we are permanently cutting business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure from 2026 for the first time, and we have capped corporation tax at 25%.”