MPs must act as there is an ‘escalating public presence of closure notices from pubs, bars and restaurants’ affecting thousands of venues

More than 6,000 letters has been sent from Night Time Economy & Hospitality Businesses to MP’s demanding an emergency support package as the industry fights for survival as many have already been forced to close.

Escalating cost inflation has resulted in 70% of night time economy and hospitality business survival rates being slashed from months to weeks, all of which have stated untenable operating costs as the reason.

We have barely started to rebuild from the pandemic, and the devastating debt legacy that set businesses back years, to be hit again with a cost inflation crisis, but with much higher stakes.

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We are in the midst of a perfect storm for these businesses, where profit is being decimated by increased operating costs, and in over 65% of cases these businesses are barely breaking even or losing money.

Market limitations are preventing these businesses from passing costs on to consumers, in the knowledge that many have less disposable income, which could create a tipping point that would see customers reduce their spend or frequency of visit due to unaffordable price increases, resulting in market contraction.

The NTIA & key stakeholders across the sector have been working tirelessly in their lobbying efforts to substantiate the severity of the crisis, liaising with current Government Ministers, and leadership candidate teams of the requirement for an emergency relief package for businesses.

Michael Kill CEO NTIA said, “Over the last three weeks we have seen an escalating public presence of closure notices from pubs, bars, restaurants, venues and clubs across the UK, with over 70% of businesses stating they will be financially compromised within weeks, all of which have stated untenable operating costs as reasons too close.”

“The industry’s future is finely balanced between the delivery of an effective survival package from the new Prime Minister and Government next week and continued consumer spend and confidence!”

“Over 6,000 businesses have written directly to there constituent MP’s demanding that they make representation to the new Prime Minister and Chancellor as they take over office, on a survival package which will allow them financial headroom to get through this crisis, urging them to reduce VAT, extend business rates relief and implement an energy cap for small, medium enterprise businesses.”