Three quarters of pubs and clubs warn they will close by Christmas in face of Tier 2 and 3 restrictions

Three quarters of pubs and clubs expect to be out of business by Christmas, a survey has found.

The study, for the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), found 75.6 per cent of night time hospitality businesses anticipate they will not be able to survive to Christmas as the Government impose tier 2 and 3 restrictions on 99 per cent of England.

Nearly three quarters of the 400 businesses surveyed also said they had been making redundancies.   Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) said they had already made more than 40 per cent of their workforce redundant.

Michael Kill, chief executive of NTIA said: “This announcement by the Government has led us to believe that they are intentionally aiming to collapse our sector.  Every town and city across the UK stands to lose valued and much loved venues.  This will be another stab in the heart of our town and city centres.

“We stand to lose the cultural institutions and amazing workforce of professionals that the UK are renowned for globally. Our clubs, bars, venues, security, freelancers, staff, managers, DJ’s and many more will lose their livelihoods and continue to suffer financial hardship without Government intervention. 

“I make a direct appeal to the Prime Minister - ‘Mr Johnson, what are you doing to save the lives and livelihoods of the many businesses and workers within the night time economy, businesses that have been closed since March and are continuing to suffer? They have staff and freelancers that will lose their jobs irrespective of furlough because the businesses won’t survive’”

“What do you say to that Prime Minister, I hope you are sleeping well at night because thousands within our sector are struggling to sleep, in fear of their future.”

Nearly three in four (74.4 per cent) of businesses surveyed were commercial tenants with 77.6 per cent saying they were more than two quarters in rent arrears.