Exiting Curnock Cook speaks at BII annual lunch

The British Institute of Innkeeping's annual lunch this week (July 23) marked the forthcoming departure of BII director Mary Curnock Cook.

Ms Curnock Cook (pictured)​, who has spent seven years as head of the institute, will be leaving at the end of August to study for an MA at the London Business School. (See Curnock Cook to leave BII (22 June 2001)for full details).

Speaking at the lunch, sponsored by Guinness UDV, she took the opportunity to urge the trade to put its money where its mouth is. She criticised the lack of funding from the larger pub operators towards schemes such as the BII's Leisure Careers UK - aimed at attracting graduates and other top quality recruits to the industry.

She said: "The continued high staff turnover is costing the industry dearly and it is vital we focus on tempting good people in."

She urged pub operators at the event to dig deep and contribute to the institute's funding programme, saying that initial enthusiasm from the trade for the careers programme had not been matched by donations to help fund it.

Ms Curnock Cook was also critical of the Government's decision to shelve plans for licensing reform and warned that "reform fatigue" had already set in.

She warned that trade leaders were becoming disillusioned by ministers' failure to act and should consider the possibility of pushing partial reform through as a deregulation order.

She said: "Unless licensing minister Kim Howells makes a very encouraging speech soon, I would be tempted to shelve work on the White Paper and look at deregulation - to give pubs a means of applying for extra hours where appropriate."