Scrap curfew and meal rules post-lockdown, hospitality chiefs demand
Ministers must "press the reset button" on restrictions when restaurants and pubs reopen to secure the future of the sector, industry chiefs have warned.
Bosses have urged the Prime Minister to scrap rules such as the curfew and substantial meal rule introduced under the Government’s tiers system to contain outbreaks in some of the worst-affected parts of the country.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said ministers must allow the sector to reopen like it was when the lockdown was lifted in July.
Pubs and restaurants were still forced to trade under social distancing restrictions, but the rules allowed up to six people from different households to be seated together, with no rules around opening hours and serving food alongside alcohol.
Hospitality firms were trading at about 70pc of their normal levels after the first lockdown, Ms Nicholls said, but this dropped to between 30 to 40pc for businesses in tier 2 and around 10pc for those in tier 3 areas.
“What we would like to see is for Government to press the reset button on reopening rather than reemerging with the same restrictions that were in place before," she said.
“The aspiration should be to get back to those July trading restrictions as quickly as possible. We should be looking to build up to that rather than build down from the tiers that we had in December.”
It came as the trade body called for an extension to the temporary VAT cut for a further year and the introduction of an additional business rates holiday until April 2022 as part of its Budget submission to the Chancellor.
UKHospitality said the eligibility criteria for the VAT cut should be made available to the wider sector such as bowling alleys, while applying the discount to alcoholic drinks so that pubs that rely on drink sales could benefit.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng urged MPs on the Commons Business committee to consider the sector’s proposals.
“I think that some of their proposals need to be looked at and I’m sure are being considered by the Treasury, and I am very happy to make representations on their behalf,” he said on Tuesday.
However Mr Kwarteng added that the public finances were already under enormous strain: “Having said all of that, we cannot forget the huge amounts of support that we have already provided to try and maintain the viability of our economy. We have spent something like £285bn already trying to sustain businesses.”
Wet-led pubs were given one-off grants worth £1,000 per site by the Government in December to help them survive closure during the festive period.
However, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, just one in four sites have received the grants, with over half of the grants introduced November yet to be paid.
