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, 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 claimed that the country has lost over 1,000 pubs since the budget, with 2 hospitality businesses closing down every day, roughly 62 net closures per month, equating to a 0.4% decline in Britain’s number of licensed premises. 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, that includes hotels, pubs, 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, 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, livelihoods, all vanishing, to replaced by what? Barbers, tanning salons and nail bars! The industry is being pushed to breaking point and is being taxed out of existence. It represents the hollowing out of our high streets and communities. Independent businesses, the lifeblood of our sector, are being disproportionately crushed under the weight of unfair taxation and soaring employment costs.
So please support your local pubs and restaurants they need you in the same way as local shops do, 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.