To be honest, I think most employers are sticking their heads in the sand with this. For years they've offered false pay rises by offering a higher rate of pay whilst destroying pension schemes and attacking shift premiums. Contracted hours seem to be getting smaller and smaller, flexibility demands appear to be getting higher, organic progression opportunities have been slashed back by never ending culls of management positions, the management positions that remain are on lower wages than they used to be. Adverts are now whacked up under these conditions despite the fact things have changed and few are applying.
As for HGV drivers, 2 decades ago before WTD drivers could put in loads of overtime (I'm not making opinions on WTD by writing this post by the way) and many companies were offering to train drivers to get their HGV license for free. This is no longer the case.
Curtail your expectations, AT will not resolve their recruitment problems by the end of this season.
It's not just Towers - the hospitality industry as a whole has been hit hard by Covid. In lockdown one many of the Eastern European staff who work in this sector just returned to their home country. It's amazing how heavily this sector relied on staff from Eastern Europe.
I used to work for a Motorway Services operator. Quite a few synergies with Towers here. Mainly minimum wage roles, locations that are hard / impossible to get to without your own transport. Long & anti-social hours (24/7 in the case of the services). I've just looked at the company in questions website and there are over 150 vacancies listed. Of these, about 120 are for minimum wage roles & they have even upped the rate to £9.21 at some sites (& in some cases provide free on-site accommodation) to try and attract people to the roles. From what I gather, they are not having much luck either as the Eastern Europeans are staying away.
If you browse the Center Parcs careers website there are 8 pages of jobs up there at present. The vast majority are all minimum wage (or slightly over it) roles in Bar work / Waiting staff / Kitchen staff etc. Yes, Center Parcs locations are remote, but they do provide some staff transport times to match common shift start & end times. Whilst a car is useful if you work for them, you can get away without one.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the hospitality sector when furlough ends. I think a lot of UK workers entitled to furlough quite enjoyed it - stay at home and still get paid 70% (down from the original 80%). For some, having to return to work is not going down well & there are no Eastern Europeans to fill the roles.
I remember just after the Brexit vote I was chatting to a Polish friend over here. She said that if the Polish workers all went home there would be food supply-chain issues to the supermarkets as it was mainly foreign workers who pick food in the fields, pack food, make the pre-pack sandwiches for supermarkets etc. How true her words now sound.
I can see that Towers will have to improve it's pay in order to attract & retain seasonal staff. Given the location of Towers & the cost of getting to/from the park for staff, Towers pay will need to be above the minimum wage to cover transport costs. If the hospitality sector in Uttoxeter / Stoke on Trent etc is offering roles at / just over the minimum wage, but with vastly reduced travel costs / time for the staff, they will vote with their feet and take a role closer to home. I can't say I'd blame then either.
Nick Varney has made clear his desire to pay staff at the Southern RTP's more to cover the higher cost of living down there. He may well find those words come back to bite him if he wants to successfully recruit and retain staff at Towers.
