Hospitality Emergency

1m jobs at risk as pubs & restaurants face £8bn hit

- Graham Hiscott & Ruki Sayid

MORE than a million jobs could go as pubs, restaurants and bars face a near £8billion loss of trade amid “carnage” caused by the new Covid tiers rules, hospitality chiefs have warned.

They fear tens of thousands of businesses will close without urgent Government help.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “The new tier system will deliver another huge blow. It is more vital than ever that the Government provides urgent further financial support.”

PM Boris Johnson had earlier admitted pubs, restaurants and hotels –“the soul of our communities” – were bearing a “disproportionate share” of the burden.

Ms Nicholls said 98% of businesses in the hospitality sector now fall in Tier 2 and 3 areas, which is almost 160,000 firms with two million staff. Of those, around 38,400 are in the top tier and have the choice of providing takeaways or closing altogether.

Ms Nicholls said: “Without additional support to sustain these businesses through this crisis, we are going to see tens of thousands of businesses closing and over a million job losses.”

UKHospitality warns of more than a million job losses in the sector. It fears £7.8billion of trade will be lost if restrictions last for all of next month. The tiers are being reviewed on December 16.

Two of the biggest pub chains yesterday said they had cut more than 2,000 jobs between them.