Pubs are ‘sacrificial lambs’ of pandemic
PUBS and restaurants are being treated as the pandemic’s ‘sacrificial lamb’, say business leaders.
Hospitality venues are taking the brunt of anti-Covid measure because the spread of the virus is not being controlled in private homes and other sectors, they claim.
Pub bosses said there was ‘little cheer’ for them, despite Level 4 restrictions being lifted in 11 council areas from Friday.
With Level 3 restrictions continuing in 1 council areas – affecting 3. million people – premises there will be banned from selling alcohol and told to close at 6pm.
The Scottish Licensed Trade Association said many venues face the threat of closure. Its managing director, Colin Wilkinson, said: ‘The opportunity to be open and doing what we do best over Christmas and New Year would have perhaps given a much-needed morale boost for operators and staff – and help businesses claw back some of the huge financial losses they have incurred in 2020.
‘It is obvious that the licensed hospitality sector is being held up as the sacrificial lamb due to the inability to control the spread of the virus in other sectors and in private homes.
‘The Scottish Government must therefore provide proper financial compensation before it’s too late.
‘This industry has and will continue to do all that it can to suppress the virus, but it needs financial aid at realistic levels – at least similar to that now available in Wales – if the sector and the staff that it employs are to be here after spring 2021 and be part of Scotland’s economic recovery.’
Miss Sturgeon yesterday said she knows there are ‘real and continued difficulties for many businesses, particularly in the hospitality sector’.
But she pledged that Finance Secretary Kate Forbes will set out details of more business support for firms hit by restrictions to help them through the winter. She also promised to consider whether further changes to the rules in each level can be ‘safely’ made to help the sector.
She said she expects tourism firms to need support for a ‘significant period of time, up to and including next summer and perhaps after that as well’.
Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: ‘We remain concerned about the ongoing crippling impacts being felt by our hospitality and tourism businesses, who have seen their trade completely dry up and with little prospect of that recovering in the near future.’