“We’re not telling pubs to close,” says the prime minister. Trouble is, they may close anyway without the correct financial support.
Not this year? An after-work pub gathering
That’s the message from a broad section of the hospitality industry, facing cancelled bookings and empty seats.
In a Tweet, a frustrated Tim Foster, co-founder of the Yummy Pub Co, said: “Insanity by definition is doing the same thing over and over again. This is insanity.”
Nick Farr, co-owner of Farr Brew, in Hertfordshire, told the BBC’s Today programme: “Yesterday one of our pubs — The Bull in Whitwell — we had a table of 15 booked. They were booked in for 12 o’clock, they literally cancelled at 9 o’clock. So that’s a lot of turkey going to waste, a lot of prep done undertaken by the chefs the night before. All of that money goes to waste really.
“Unless they are okay with literally dozens of thousands of pubs going under, then [the government] just simply have to put a very extensive package of financial aid back into place.”
Patrick Dardis, chief executive of Young’s, has warned that some businesses will not survive into the new year. He told Today: “Unfortunately, with the latest fear campaign that’s being run, it’s damaging so many businesses that could possibly have survived. As a consequence, thousands and thousands of businesses will now collapse in January.”
