Rarely a day passes without another headline, another news piece, another poll or set of figures to dissect. With estimates of between four and six businesses closing weekly, and particularly independent businesses being utterly crippled, it feels as though the parts of our industry that make it unique, exciting, warm and wonderful are in their final death throes.
I, like many others, spend countless hours poring over the latest doom-filled statistics. Countless emails land in my inbox every day, a harbinger of impending doom accompanied by a joyful trilling iPhone notification.
The facts and figures are essential to making our case, with vital campaigns such as #VATsTheProblem demonstrating the hard reality of the situation. These numbers are irrefutable evidence of the stark reality hospitality faces. The issue that is less frequently mentioned is the personal toll this bleak environment has fostered. I recently saw Tommy Banks discuss it and felt compelled to speak further on it.
Mental health damage
The numbers, although important as tangible and quantifiable evidence, do not account for the damage being wrought on the mental health of so many.
There is the restaurant owner who has not slept properly in months because they barely pay themselves and still cannot make payroll viable; or the publican who is in tears because they don’t know how they are going to pay their next VAT bill while also juggling an utterly terrifying repayment plan to HMRC on top of 7% interest; or the café owner having panic attacks because they have invested their life savings into a business that is no longer viable and they will be left with nothing.
Hospitality operators shoulder more than just the responsibility of running a business and paying taxes; they have a team that relies on them for a job, they create spaces for communities to come together, they are friends, advisers, tastemakers, therapists and providers who, ultimately, have chosen a career in nourishing the stomachs and souls of others. Often the least mentioned fact is that first and foremost they are humans who are carrying an insurmountably heavy burden.
Beyond the owners are the employees, the ones who make up the third largest employment sector in the UK, and who need this industry. There is a chef who has dedicated 40 years of their life to their passion and craft in a rural restaurant and has nowhere else to go, a barman who knows every local by name and their orders by heart and needs the job to feed their children, the kitchen porter who relies on their job while studying to ensure they can afford rent and do not end up homeless.
Abject terror
This could sound highly impassioned and hyperbolic, but these nameless examples are all real people across the country who could quite easily have their livelihoods stripped away overnight.
With such uncertainty and abject terror hanging over an entire industry, charities such as the Burnt Chef Project have reported an increase in demand over the past few years. Hospitality has never been easy, but it has never been harder.
I always try to end my pieces with something edifying, or some sort of sage advice gleaned from my own experiences. Unfortunately, even I find it hard to put a positive spin on any of this. But we must keep shouting about the financial pressures placed on our industry. We must make our voices heard and make everyone we know sign the petition. To weather this storm we cannot give up, even though it may feel impossible.
We are in this together. You are not alone.
