Expert Insight
NEWS from
Kate Nicholls UKHospitality Chief Executive
Throughout most of the past 18 months, as the soap opera around Brexit trundled onwards, I cautioned readers of this column that anything I was writing may well have been out of date by the time it was published. Writing this column, the first under a UK-wide lockdown, the petty dramas of the year seem almost completely irrelevant. That message, that anything you read in these pages may have been superseded by events in the real world, has never been more relevant, though. Events are, sadly, moving so quickly, that we are reacting to events unfolding on an hourly basis and we have had to adjust our practices and psyches to a brand-new reality.
Hospitality businesses have been one of the hardest and most visibly hit by the virus. One of the first acts by the Government to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 was to encourage people to avoid pubs, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. This was swiftly followed by a mandatary closure of premises. One of the early narratives of the news cycle was the closing down of people’s local pubs and restaurants and the very visible hit that hospitality venues all round the UK were taking.
The Government response to support businesses has not been faultless, but is has been, considering the circumstances, pretty laudable. A package of support for businesses was announced swiftly and it was followed, in similarly rapid fashion, by a job retention scheme pledge, following pressure from UKHospitality and other business representatives. Make no mistake, hospitality businesses face a critical challenge in the weeks and months ahead, and undoubtedly some of them will not survive. Some crumbs of comfort can be taken from the
fact that the Government does seem to have grasped the scale of the danger facing our sector, though; and Ministers have been receptive to our approaches and messages.
After this crisis has passed, one of the first things that many, many people around the country are going to want to do is regain some sense of normality by going out for a drink or a meal and socialising with friends they have not seen for weeks. This means we have to be ready, and crucially able, to pick up the baton as we come out of the other end of the lockdown. The likelihood is we will be looking at another recession and a tough immediate future economically. Hospitality is one of the few sectors positioned to help pick up the pieces. In the meantime, we all need to support each other as best we can.
As the ghastly news has unfolded, it has been heartening to see the way in which our sector has responded to the crisis. Many businesses have worked to ensure that food stocks have been re-routed to key workers, hotels have offered rooms to NHS
staff, other key workers and the homeless, live wellness and training streams have been launched, resources for mental health and wellbeing from the Licensed Trade Charity and Hospitality Action, and numerous initiatives have sprung up helping to find jobs for hospitality workers who have been furloughed or laid-off. When businesses are under unprecedented pressure, it is great to see people in hospitality working hard to support their colleagues. We will need plenty more generosity and ingenuity in the weeks ahead.
Normal business has gone out of the window and normal life has been put on hold. This column may be my last chance to talk to you for a while as outlets go dark for a while. In which case, UKHospitality, as the sector’s representative, is there to help you as best it can at this worrying time. Anyone can sign up to our daily coronavirus updates via our website and businesses in hospitality should contact us to see how else we can help you. In the meantime, look after yourselves and I look forward to reconnecting with you in the future.
6
April 2020
www.venue-insight.com
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