Almost a thousand pubs and restaurants have closed since Freedom Day
The country has lost nearly a thousand pubs and restaurants since Freedom Day, when hospitality was freed from Covid restrictions.
At an average closure rate of 16 licensed premises a day, the figures from CGA and AlixPartners make stark the difficulties still faced by businesses.
Independently run pubs and bars accounted for nearly three quarters of all closures between July and September, reducing the indie sector in size by one per cent.
Nightclub numbers dropped by almost 100 despite their longly anticipated reopening in the summer, a drop of nine per cent in just two months.
There are now 9,900 fewer licensed premises than before the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020. Business leaders fear closures will increase as pandemic government support winds down.
“You could describe it almost as like wartime, the whole experience of March 2020 until reopening this spring. We all want to get on with it but we have been hit with a big tax increase, supply chain issues, explained founder & executive chairman of The Oakman Group, Peter Borg Neal.
A coalition of hospitality trade bodies wrote to the Prime Minister this week calling for a retention of the 12.5 per cent VAT rate to “relieve upwards pressure on prices.”
Sector leaders have also called for a Covid Recovery Visa to allow overseas workers to stem vacancies in pubs and restaurants.
A cross-party inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid crisis rubbed further salt into the wounds of hospitality bosses yesterday. MPs concluded there was a lack of scientific evidence for measures including a 10pm curfew on venues last autumn.
“Everyone piling out at the same time and then gathering in private homes, it almost certainly drove cases,” pub boss Borg-Neal added.
Graeme Smith, AlixPartners’ managing director, said: “Demand remains strong but with staff shortages, utility cost inflation and supply-chain disruption, there are renewed efforts to secure continued government support to the industry to help it weather this storm as the reopening and rehabilitation process continues through what may be a challenging winter.”