Unfortunately, while we do still see some restaurants opening, there are so many now having to close their doors, some after many long years. Hospitality is now going through a really tough time, and it needs your help – everyone’s help. As with all businesses, it finds itself suffering thanks to the increase in NI and now a further increase in the minimum wage, and many are facing massive rent and business rate hikes, but it seems much more pronounced in hospitality.
It is reported that the country has lost over 1,000 pubs since the budget, with two hospitality businesses closing down every day, resulting in approximately 62 net closures per month, which equates to a 0.4% decline in the number of licensed premises in Britain. This also means the sector is now 14.2% smaller (net) than it was at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Over the past five years, there have been more than 16,000 net closures, with the independent restaurant sector shrinking by 22.7% over the same period.
Around 1,700 accommodation and food service companies, which include hotels, pubs, and restaurants, closed in the 6 months to June 2025, according to government figures, and it is getting worse. What will 2026 bring? Probably a lot more of these closures sadly. Chains, big-named chefs, small independent pubs, restaurants and even coffee shops – none are immune; they all need our help, your help, to stay in business.
It has always been difficult to make money in hospitality; margins have always been tight. These days, though, it is harder than ever. Wages, rents, rates, loan repayments, goods, and utilities are all through the roof. VAT is undoubtedly too high and should, in my opinion, be reduced, but will the chancellor see sense and actually do it? Doubtful, sadly.
This decline must stop; it cannot continue at this rate. Thousands of jobs are being lost; businesses, homes, and livelihoods are all vanishing, to be replaced by what? Barbers, tanning salons, and nail bars have become the new norm! The industry is being strained to its limits and facing crippling taxes. This represents the erosion of our high streets and communities. Unfair taxation and soaring employment costs disproportionately crush independent businesses, the lifeblood of our sector.
So please support your local pubs and restaurants; they need you in the same way as local shops do, like the greengrocer, the butcher, the shoe shop and the newsagents. If you don’t, then they will disappear, and like I have already explained, your neighbourhood will not be the same without them.
Use them or lose them.