Late Night Levy ‘stifles sector’s recovery’
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed hospitality to be fuelling the night-time economy. But worrying trends are emerging, particularly the loss of 800,000 workers in the past six years.
Nightclubs, bars, restaurants and cafes are responsible for 42% of customer spend after 6pm, the largest of those examined by the ONS, which demonstrates the strong public demand for a late-night offering.
What’s more, the figures showed the sector was still a key employer, with 8.7m people working at night. Despite this, the staff lost in the industry and the drain on turnover by the Late Night Levy is preventing venues taking advantage of high demand.
Under pressure
UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the data showed how important the night-time economy was to communities across the UK as a critical employer. She believed it also highlighted its role driving footfall to towns and cities to visit late-night venues.
“Hospitality is the main attraction in the night-time economy, with almost half of consumer spend taking place there,” Nicholls continued, “but there’s so much more we can do if barriers to doing business are removed. The loss of nearly a million workers from the sector just shows the pressure it is under.”
The Late Night Levy was one of the main drains on business, according to Nicholls, costing venues £365,000 last year and stifling the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.
Concerted effort
She believed its introduction had been a failure, and removing such an ineffective levy, which local authorities and a House of Lords Committee both concluded has not been successful, would provide much-needed relief for affected venues.
Nicholls continued: “After a pandemic where late-night venues could scarcely open and now a cost-of-living crisis, we need to see a concerted effort by Government and local authorities to back our night-time economy.
“Supporting positive measures such as the agent of change principle would be a great help to the sector, as would planning and licensing policies that recognise the benefits the late-night sector brings.”
