The owner of a UK pub chain has said he will return the government's £250,000 Covid-19 grant if his branches are used to speed up the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations.
Dermot King, the chief executive of restaurant group, Oakman Inns, said his business will return Rishi Sunak's lockdown support if he allows the NHS to use his pubs as vaccination centres.
Through the Treasury's business grants, Oakman Inns is due to receive £250,000 over the next four months, but King said the business will forego the support to help pay for a bigger and quicker vaccination roll-out.
"The only route to any normality is through mass vaccination and for that the NHS needs to be able to work at scale," he explained.
"The entire hospitality industry is desperate to re-open as quickly as possible before we have huge scale redundancies across the sector."
Ministers are in talks to use pharmacists for the roll out, but King said allowing them to work from large pubs and restaurants would help speed up the process.
Oakman Inns has 28 properties across many of the Home Counties and the Midlands. He said they also have refrigeration areas to help with storage and are Covid-19 safe.
"Our pubs have large indoor spaces and in some cases large car parks and accommodation, which could accommodate large numbers of people around the clock.
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"Clearly, the money offered by the Chancellor yesterday would help us in the short-term, but realistically the only way all of us can get back to normal is to get the country vaccinated.
"We would rather let the Government keep their hand-out to invest it in using hospitality venues as vaccination centres for the greater good of all.
"The hospitality sector has the venues, it has the infrastructure, the venues are sitting empty, and our offer even includes a contribution towards the cost of the scheme.
"We want to help the Government and the people of the UK beat Covid-19 because the quicker we’re vaccinated, the more lives we save, the more jobs we save, the more businesses we save, and we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to see that happen."
