One in four pubs and bars fear imminent business failure

Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey data has indicated that over one in four (27.9%) of UK pub and bar operators have fears that their business would fail even before the latest coronavirus lockdown restrictions were announced.

Meanwhile, less than one in five (19.1%) of responding pub and bar businesses had high confidence in surviving the next three months.

The survey also found that nearly a quarter (23.6%) of responding pub and bar businesses reported that they had no remaining cash reserves or less than one month of cash reserves remaining. This compares with one-fifth (20.6%) of pub and bar businesses reporting more than three months of cash reserves.

The figures are based on responses to the Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey (BICS) in Wave 18 (16 to 29 November 2020), and refer to the period 2 to 15 November 2020.

Commenting on the figures UK Hospitality’s Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said “So many pubs, restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels, having invested so much to make their venues safe, are only just clinging on by the skin of their teeth,” noting that “the burden of a region being moved into Tier 3 falls almost exclusively on hospitality businesses.”

“Placing more areas into tier 3 is only going to ruin Christmas for those businesses entering and continued despair and heartbreak for those hard-pressed businesses that had hoped they might move into tier 2.

“Businesses will have bought stock which will now go to waste and more people will lose work at a stressful time. Hotels are now facing a deluge of short-notice cancellations because of the tightening of restrictions. What was already looking like a bleak Christmas is now looking like a total write-off.’

“This will be a bitter blow for businesses that would have been hoping to make the best of a difficult Christmas period. The increased restrictions, effectively a total shutdown for most, will make it even more difficult for businesses to salvage what little they can from what should be a busy period.”

“More financial support most be forthcoming if we are to have any hope that these businesses will survive. They can trade their way out of danger next year only if they are still around to do so.”