Hall & Woodhouse extends rent cancellation

Hall & Woodhouse head of business partnerships Chris Chapman said the business was committed to providing its licensees with the financial support they required amid the coronavirus crisis.

He added: “This rent-free extension will bring the total rent we have cancelled for our business partners to over £1.6m.

“We hope together, with the support provided by the Government, we can continue to help our partners to immediately fund their businesses.”

Previous announcement

The company originally decided to suspend these payments for four weeks, following the Prime Minister’s advice to avoid pubs on Monday 16 March.

However, after the PM then announced all pubs must close on Friday 20 March, Hall & Woodhouse then decided to extend this support for a further four weeks.

Following this, the pub group announced, on Friday 27 March, it was cancelling rent and service charges for eight weeks​, backdated to Sunday 22 March.

Constant review

Chapman added: “The situation remains under constant review and we have reassured our business partners our support will continue beyond the reopening phase.

“Over 243 years we have faced up to many challenges, big and small, and we have come through them by living our values, supporting each other and working as a team across our estate.”

This follows 54% of pub bosses saying a rent holiday of nine months or more was “extremely important”​ in a new Hospitality Leaders Poll, launched by HIM/MCA Insight, a division of The Morning Advertiser​’s parent company William Reed.

The weekly poll of 700 business leaders, including more than 380 pub bosses, from across the eating and drinking-out sector showed the sector will need a considerable amount of long-term financial support in the months ahead just to survive.