UK hospitality firms threaten legal action over continued lockdown
The UK hospitality sector has said it will take legal action against the government if the the mooted July reopening date is deferred any longer.
In an open letter headed by Sacha Lord, the night time economy advisor for Greater Manchester, a group of 45 hospitality businesses demand financial support in wake of the government’s four week extension to the reopening of the sector which was originally planned for June 21st.
The change in plan has come as a huge blow to the beleaguered industry, which was prepareing to fully open next week. The hospitality sector is now forecast to lose £3bn over the course of the four week delay with reporst revealing that the sector has already lost more than £87bn over the past year accounting for a third of job losses during the Covid pandemic.
"All of these industries have suffered enormously due to the repeated closures and reopenings, the ongoing lack of certainty, draconian social distancing measures and the illogical rules implemented and then removed, as areas have grappled with the constantly changing tier systems, and the local and national lockdowns,” said the letter.
“It has been impossible for the affected sectors to operate anywhere near their pre-Covid levels, and for each day that the Covid restrictions remain in place, sectors such as hospitality … continue to suffer enormous losses. The treatment of these sectors’ employees and business owners is deplorable and cannot continue," said Lord. “As of the end of the month, we’ll not only see a 10% increase in furlough contributions, but the relief rate for hospitality drops from 100% to 66%. Factor in that huge parts of the nightlife sector are not even open yet, and we have a clear and inevitable crisis about to take place. We demand absolute confirmation we will reopen on the 19 July and we need urgent financial support to give businesses the best possible chance to survive until then.”
Backing the move, Michael Kill, boss of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), claimed the industry had been left with "no other option", “The eleventh hour delay to reopening announced by the Prime Minister on Monday was yet another devastating blow to nightlife businesses, and the Government then rubbed salt into the wounds by indicating that support programmes like furlough and business rates relief would not be extended. Our sector simply cannot countenance another delay.
"These new measures will have a catastrophic impact on late night businesses, and are exacerbated further by an insufficient financial support package presented by the chancellor in an attempt to sustain businesses through this period," he said.
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