'Avoid the bleakest of winters' 100 hospo bosses urge PM

If support does not come, the open letter states, then the sector will likely face the bleakest winter yet.

The letter read:

Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

29 September 2020

Dear Prime Minister

We write to you today as a collective of businesses from across the hospitality sector, from multinational operators to representatives of individual sites, as the realities of last week’s announcement now become clear. We are committed to working with the Government in the fight to keep COVID-19 under control and demonstrating our businesses are safe places for customers to visit. Quite simply, though, we need additional and urgent support in order to survive this bleakest of winters. Businesses are at risk of failure and hundreds of thousands of viable jobs will be lost without Government action.

Hospitality is a major driver of economic activity in the UK, supporting more than three million jobs during 2019 and tens of thousands of small, medium and large businesses in every corner of the country. They are integral to Britain’s tourism offer. Our sector has been hit incredibly hard by the pandemic and many businesses have already sadly closed forever, with the remainder fighting for survival. For tens of thousands of small pub business operators, these are their homes as well as their livelihoods. Even prior to this week, one half of hospitality businesses did not believe they would survive beyond the middle of next year. Many have not even yet had the chance to re-open, such as nightclubs and the events sector.

The latest restrictions have made this fight to survive even harder. Town and city centre businesses - re-opened as people were urged to return to offices - will now be shut down. Across the country, the 10pm curfew has removed key trading hours for all of us vital to our survival, removing whole shifts from food-led businesses. It has created pinch points for public transport and large groups congregating elsewhere in a manner likely to increase COVID-related health risks.   

The sector has invested tens of millions of pounds in protective equipment for staff, perspex shields, enhanced cleaning regimes as well as new technology solutions to create entirely safe Covid-secure environments, yet trade is already being decimated as more consumers stay away whilst costs continue to rise.  On top of this, we are experiencing further restrictions for already Covid-Secure venues, which dismays operators as yet more restrictions are applied to their businesses. We are not opposed to restrictions that can tackle the spread of the virus but a pragmatic and flexible approach has to be adopted by both central and local Government. A commitment must be made to review the appropriateness of all these measures at least every three weeks. The 10pm curfew should be removed if demonstrably not working as intended or adjusted to provide for gradual dispersal and avoid the unintended consequences for the wider sector including cultural activities now impacted.

If we are to have businesses to rebuild once the winter months are over that will lead the economic and employment recovery, we now need urgent Government support. Sector-specific restrictions deserve sector-specific support. However, the package announced by the Chancellor does not go nearly far enough for our imperiled sector. The Job Support Scheme, as it stands, regrettably does not provide us with the necessary tools to stave off hundreds of thousands of redundancies of otherwise viable jobs that are now taking place on an unprecedented scale. The simple truth is that without an immediate review of the support on offer to pubs, restaurants and wider hospitality businesses, many will be lost for years to come. The damage to communities will be immeasurable, long-term, and ultimately extremely costly for Government.

In the immediate term, the employer contributions need to be removed for the hospitality sector and a new package of grant funding for businesses that face restrictions brought forward. To plan for a future beyond the winter, the VAT cut and business rates holiday must also be extended through 2021 and beer duty cut.

We would ask you to intervene as a matter of urgency and as a first step convene a meeting of sector leaders to help draw up a support package that will prevent the devastating damage that is drawing ever closer.

Yours sincerely

Signed and supported by the following businesses and business leaders: