The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has launched a campaign urging the government to remove all remaining covid restrictions on pubs and the wider hospitality sector.
Countdown to Freedom will comprise powerful news stories and social media posts using the hashtag #Countdown2Freedom. These will show the damage current restrictions are having on the viability of pubs, brewers, and hospitality businesses, and how they threaten to impede their recovery.
It will also highlight the freedoms people miss the most from when they could visit pubs and other hospitality venues as normal, before the covid crisis.
At present, approximately 95% of the UK’s 47,000 pubs have re-opened. However, they face significant restrictions that greatly limit their ability to trade as viable businesses. These include table service only, one-metre-plus social distancing, group sizes of up to six indoors, and no bar or standing drinking.
Upwards of 2,000 pubs are still closed, unable to re-open under the current restrictions because they are too small to do social distancing or table service only.
As more and more individuals across the UK receive their vaccination, the BBPA says all restrictions must be removed in pubs on 21st June if safe to do so.
Publicans, hospitality operators, and interest groups, ranging from consumer bodies to trade associations, are all encouraged to get involved in the campaign. This will be done by supplying a range of social media assets available for everyone to use to promote the campaign through their own social channels and website, showing their support and the desire of the hospitality sector as a whole to fully reopen without restrictions.
BBPA chief executive, Emma McClarkin, said: “More and more people are getting the vaccine each day. It’s time for the restrictions on our freedoms to be replaced by the protection of the vaccination, and for businesses to get back to trading as normal.
“The time is ticking on the government to stick to its roadmap and remove all restrictions on 21st June.”
Anyone wanting to learn more about the Countdown to Freedom campaign and request campaign support materials should get in contact with the BBPA via beerandpub.com/contact-us/.
On the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, Shepherd Neame chief executive, Jonathan Neame, was asked about the possibility of a delay to ‘freedom day’ on 21st June.
“If it’s delayed for, say, seven days, but there’s still a certain outcome the restrictions will be lifted in full after that, then that will be a marginal impact,” he said.
“If, on the other hand, we’re going into a cycle of a further five weeks of data review and uncertainty, and more reviews at that time, then I think that will put a real damper on the recovery, which is happening quite fast at this moment in time, and will really undermine consumer and business confidence.”
