Reverse new rules on hospitality – or businesses will be lost forever
David Abrahamovitch is founder and CEO of GRIND
The very last thing that the hospitality industry needed was a set of new rules, especially ones that undermine consumer confidence and set the entire sector back even further.
It’s incredibly difficult to understand the 10pm curfew and the ‘rule of six’ in the context of the current data, especially in London where the death and hospitalisation rates remain so low, and when the risks for those without pre-existing conditions who are under the age of 65 remain so miniscule.
Until the announcement of these new rules, it felt like confidence was returning following the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, and Central London was feeling ever so slightly more like normal.
Read more: Three-quarters of hospitality businesses considering layoffs and restructuring
The scheme brought an extra 10 million diners through the doors of hospitality venues, giving the industry a much needed boost following months of no trade.
Consumers were really starting to move on and UK diners were learning to live with COVID-19, not around it.
Like lockdown, the curfew and the rule of six are incredibly blunt instruments, with little basis on science and are a hammer blow to confidence around the UK.
All of a sudden, any chance of decent trade through the vital Christmas party season feels incredibly unlikely for many UK businesses, which will result in the closures and redundancies across the country.
Public Health England’s statistics show that around only 3% of transmissions are happening in hospitality venues, which is incredibly low. To implement such a targeted attack on hospitality, to offer no data to support the new rules, and then to offer such limited financial support is completely unacceptable.
I own Grind, a group of ten cafe/restaurant/bars in Central London. We’ve gradually been reopening our venues since restrictions were lifted, with six out of our ten venues now operational, but we’re doing it with limited menus, and, in some cases, opening hours.
Read more: London without hospitality is not the capital we know and love
Trade was slowly rebuilding, but London is a shadow of its former self and desperately needs footfall to return, and in the last week we’ve started going backwards again.
Fortunately, Grind trades right through the day, seven days per week – and so is not particularly reliant on post 10pm trade. Because of this, and thanks to our diversification online; and our access to the various government schemes – the business will survive the coming months.
But unless these rules are reversed, many others won’t be so lucky; and hundreds of businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost forever if these rules are not reversed, and fast.