Pubs hit hard by pandemic

Many owners are not confident their business will survive past Christmas

MORE than one in four pub and bar owners in the UK do not have confidence their businesses will continue to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

A recent survey by the Office for National Statistics found that 27.9% of pub and bar owners have no or low confidence that their business will survive the next three months.

Meanwhile, 14.0% of pub and bar owners surveyed said their cash reserves would only last them less than a month, and 9.6% said they had no reserves at all.

The confidence and cash flow

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levels of other businesses are a lot more positive in comparison, suggesting that the hospitality sector has been hit harder by the pandemic than other industries.

Only 5.2% of other businesses had no or low confidence that they would survive, compared to the 27.9% of pubs and bars.

The majority of other business owners have high confidence levels that they will survive the next three months at 60.2%, a stark contrast to the 19.1% of pub and bar owners.

More than half of other business owners also said they have cash reserves that would cover more than three months.

Only 3.7% said their cash reserves would last less than a month, and 4.9% said they had no reserves at all.

The pandemic has undoubtedly had a big impact on the hospitality sector, with two nation-wide lockdowns and parts of the UK now enforcing tier 3 and 4 restrictions, meaning pubs and bars have had to remain closed.

In areas where pubs have been able to stay open, they have had to operate at limited capacities due to social distancing measures.

In response to the new tier system that will be enforced over Christmas, Campaign for Real Ale’s Chief Executive Tom Stainer said: “Pubs and breweries across England had been hoping for some good news that would allow them to get some much-needed money through the tills at what would be their busiest time of year.

“The announcement that the vast majority of the country will stay in Tier 2 or 3, with large parts of the East and South East joining London going into Tier 3, is another devastating blow for the beer and pubs industry when they had hoped there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“With even more pubs forced to shut for Christmas, now more than ever, we need a new, long-term, sector-specific financial support plan to make sure that otherwise-viable pubs, clubs and breweries up and down the country can survive into the new year without having to close down for good.”

The government announced that there is a £1,000 Christmas grant for pubs in tiers 2, 3 and 4 who will miss out on business during the Christmas period, and businesses can apply for up to £3,000 of additional support.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “While we can’t make up for all the trade they will lose over Christmas, I hope this new £1,000 grant – on top of the furlough, VAT and business rates relief and existing grants, goes some way to help them weather the economic storm.”

However, for CAMRA, this may not be enough to prevent closures.