Eight in 10 hospitality businesses ‘embracing’ Eat Out to Help Out scheme

04-Aug-2020 - Last updated on 04-Aug-2020 at 15:59 GMT

Money saving: operators can offer customers 50% off food and non-alcoholic drinks (up to £10) as part of the scheme

Some 84% of companies are looking to participate in the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out Scheme, new research has found.

A survey conducted by UKHospitality (UKH) also found more than half (54%) of the 128 businesses asked are planning to roll out the scheme across all their venues – while 14% said it would be rolled out across most of their venues and 15% across some venues.

This comes after a poll last month (20 July) by HIM/MCA Insight, a division of The Morning Advertiser’s parent company William Reed Business Media, found that 58% were planning to offer customers 50% off (up to £10 per person) as part of the scheme.

UKH is urging hospitality businesses to support the scheme and chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “It is great to see so many businesses embracing the scheme. The Chancellor recognised our sector has been hit the hardest of all and this scheme goes some way to delivering the support vulnerable hospitality businesses need."

Innovative menu additions

Nicholls added: “It is encouraging to see our sector being recognised for its importance and the Treasury delivering decisive support quickly.

“It looks like our sector has been quick to adopt the scheme and we have seen examples of innovative menu additions aimed at tempting customers.

“We hope the take-up will be just as widespread among consumers as businesses have invested heavily to make their venues Covid-secure.

“Confidence is going to be key to securing the future of our sector and keeping jobs safe. We hope as many people as possible take this one-off chance to have a fantastic experience at a significant discount and rediscover eating out throughout August.”

How to claim

HMRC has now released details on how operators can claim the discount offered by the eat out to Help Out Scheme back.

The earliest operators can claim online from is this Friday (7 August) but this must be seven days from the date of registration. The service will run until 30 September.

Operators will be able to claim back the discount given on food and non-alcoholic drinks and submit weekly claims for August until the end of September.

However, you must make the claim yourself and cannot ask an agent to do it for you.

Claims can only be submitted for scheme discounts offered on or after the date the business was registered.