The latest figures from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) are nothing short of devastating: six pubs are closing every week.
That’s six businesses, six livelihoods, six community hubs being wiped off the map at a rate that should set alarm bells ringing at the highest levels of government.
But instead of intervention, all we get is silence—or worse, punitive policies that only serve to hasten the decline of the sector.
The hospitality industry is not alone in its despair. Across the country, trade bodies and business leaders from multiple sectors are crying out against the impending April increases, warning of their catastrophic impact.
The licensed trade, hospitality, and even adult social care—another sector we at CLH NEWS report on extensively—are all in the same boat, battered by a storm of unsustainable costs. And yet, we have a government that appears to be utterly tone-deaf, pushing ahead with these rises irrespective of the dire consequences being forecast.
Never in my lifetime have I seen such an extraordinary burden placed on businesses, all at the same time. It’s as if the Treasury has lost all sense of balance, caring little for the economic repercussions of its policies.
And if the government’s relentless taxation weren’t enough, we now have the Mayor of Manchester looking to turn the city’s voluntary ‘City Visitor Charge’ into a mandatory tax. It is the same old story—no innovation, no entrepreneurial spirit, no real understanding of what makes businesses tick.
Instead, they simply see a revenue stream and tax it. It never stops. They have become the very definition of ‘robber barons’—extracting what they can, regardless of the long-term damage they inflict.
But there is hope. This week, new data from RSM UK has provided clear evidence that the hospitality sector can flourish when given even the slightest breathing space. Company insolvency statistics show that accommodation and food service insolvencies have fallen by 7% year-on-year, from 3,737 in 2023 to 3,464 in 2024.
More encouragingly, insolvencies dropped 31% month-on-month from November to December and fell 29% compared to the same month the previous year.
What does this tell us? It tells us that, despite everything, the hospitality sector is resilient. It tells us that when the government stops using it as a cash cow, businesses survive, jobs are saved, and money still flows into Treasury coffers.
The latest Oxford Market Watch Snapshot also highlights that some sectors within hospitality are showing resilience and even growth, proving that recovery is possible—but only if the government listens to those in the know and acts accordingly.
We can only hope that in the coming weeks, the Chancellor takes heed of the stark warnings being issued from every corner of the industry. The hospitality sector is crying out for support, not suffocation. And if this government is serious about economic growth, job creation, and sustaining vital industries, it must change course—before it’s too late.
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