We in the NTI newsroom are a little surprised this morning (Tuesday 1 November), as the newswires report that the words 'Matt Hancock' and 'celebrity' find their way into the same sentence in a number of online articles. The former philanderer and Health Secretary has temporarily lost the Conservative Party whip as he signs up for ITV's 'I'm a Celebrity'. How has the lookalike star of 'This England' managed to achieve such status, and are the population of Britain prepared to watch him jump into a cold pool of water in the Australian jungle? Reports are that kagaroos' genitals and smoothied cockroaches are complaining about the prospect of being connected with the ex-cabinet minister's lips as they prepare for the show due to start transmission at the end of this month.
Meanwhile a survey for UKHospitality, the British Beer and Pub Association, the British Institute of Innkeeping and Hospitality Ulster found that 96 per cent of pub and restaurant businesses were being hit by higher energy costs, while 93 per cent faced higher food prices. We at NTI think this survey is out of kilter; as all energy costs and food prices have increased, surely 100 per cent of such businesses must have discovered this by now?
The presumed fact of the matter is that more than a third of businesses in the hospitality industry risk going bust early in 2023 as running costs and dwindling consumer confidence push them to the brink. The brink is a place where customers of discretionary service businesses become unwilling to pay four times more for a beer they can get from a can bought in a supermarket and ten times more for a sandwich they can make at home. It is also a place which used to be warm and welcoming, but is now a chilly environment in which you have to put up with the moaning of landlords who want to tell you how much they pay to have their bins emptied each week by private sector operators.
The survey covered 506 pubs, restaurants, bars, hotels and other venues. Respondents’ net confidence in their businesses is at -42 per cent, 15 points lower than during the Covid outbreak, while net confidence in the wider sector is almost at pandemic levels, tumbling to -64 per cent.
We have been here before. Earlier in 2022 it was reported that 80 per cent of pubs would be closed by the spring as they no longer have viable businesses in an economic climate that precludes spending and enjoyment. To offer an update on what we are all experiencing at the moment, it is reported that the cost of living crisis is being felt by erstwhile eat-and-drink-out customers, with 77 per cent reporting a fall in people eating and drinking out of the home and 85 per cent expecting this to get worse.
Returning to the above-mentioned trade bodies, a spokesperson for them said: “The vulnerability of the sector due to soaring energy costs, crippling rises in the cost of goods and dampening consumer confidence is on full display in this survey and, if urgent action isn’t taken, it is looking incredibly likely that we will lose a significant chunk of Britain’s iconic hospitality sector in the coming weeks and months.”
This, of course, has a domino-effect on our own glorious sector, where we will need to staff up for such a widescale sector catastrophe. However, we will need more staff in any event as gyms, garden centres, cafés, wine bars, foodhalls and all other such establishments fail to attract sufficent footfall to occupy their now too expensive halls.
