Thousands of pubs will close for good unless they are granted a special bailout, the industry trade body has warned, after the government said pubs would be among the last businesses to reopen when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased.
Amid suggestions that pubs could be closed until Christmas, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said “extra support” would be required for an industry already in long-term decline.
In an appeal to the government, the BBPA said the furlough scheme to help businesses pay staff would need to be made available to pub owners for longer. Business rates relief could also be extended to 10,000 pubs that were currently ineligible, the BBPA said.
Pubs with annual rental values higher than £51,000 are not included in a retail and hospitality scheme that offers grants of up to £25,000 to help during the nationwide shutdown.
The BBPA chief executive, Emma McClarkin, said: “When this crisis is over we will all want to go to the pub, so it’s vital the government does everything it can to help them right now.”
McClarkin said the industry would need extra support if the easing of lockdown restrictions was still far off. The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, said on Sunday that pubs and restaurants would be “among the last to exit the lockdown”.
“If pubs are going to be the last to reopen, then it’s only right the government gives extra support to them to help ensure their survival,” said McClarkin. “We are clear that unless the government gives specific support to pubs now, thousands of them in communities across the UK could be lost for good. And with them hundreds of thousands of jobs too.”
The BBPA’s appeal comes with some of its large pub company members under pressure for failing to cancel rents charged to publicans, even though they have no source of revenue.
Edward Anderson, who runs three pubs in Cheltenham, said: “I’m paying £14,000-a-month rent. If we’re going to be closed until Christmas, it’s just debt that we can’t repay when we reopen. Our immediate priority is some sensible discussion about pubcos indebting their tenants.”
A spokesperson for the BBPA said: “Rent is a commercial decision and the BBPA does not advise its members on commercial decisions.”
Pubs, bars and restaurants have been among the businesses hit hardest by the Covid-19 outbreak, with customer numbers plummeting even before the lockdown as the government advised people to stay away.
The number of pubs has already been in long-term decline amid changing consumer trends such as a move towards buying cheap supermarket alcohol to drink at home and a growing penchant for sobriety among younger people.
But figures released in December offered a glimmer of hope for the industry, with the first net increase in pub numbers since 2010. The UK ended March 2019 with 39,135 pubs, 320 more than a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
