Thousands of hospitality businesses could close their doors for good without government intervention (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Key bodies representing the UK hospitality sector have penned an open letter to the UK government demanding urgent action on rising energy prices that could devastate their membership if not reined in urgently.
The letter said that the trading conditions for pubs, restaurants, music venues, nightclubs, hotels and wider hospitality have reached the point where “the conditions for trading” were so prohibitive that “many venues are already reducing the hours they open their doors” and that average annual bills in hospitality had increased “in excess of 300%”.
Boss of UKHospitality Kate Nicholls, Night Time Industries Association chief Michael Kill, Music Venue Trust head Mark Davyd, Steve Alton of the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and Emma McClarkin of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) were all co-signatories.
Thousands of hospitality business in the UK are now in danger of closure due to a perfect storm of overheads threatening to catch them in the undertow and drag them down for good.
Business pressures include energy costs, that have spiked across Britain in the last few months, increasing staff wage demands due to scarcity of staff and record vacancies in the hospitality sector and the Government’s return to 20% VAT from the lower rate of 12.5% post-pandemic.
The industry bodies insisted that the bill hikes from energy and staff wage hikes were putting “at risk businesses and jobs” and that it had become increasingly clear that “a significant number of energy providers have withdrawn service provision” to some of their members.
“Not all businesses will be able to survive this onslaught, and those that can will be closely considering how they can keep their costs down just to stay afloat,” the letter read.
“Business and consumer confidence is suffering, and we urgently need the Government and the leadership contenders to outline a support package for the sector.”
