The hospitality industry has been battered and bruised recently – just a few weeks ago, it was facing chronic labour shortages following the introduction of an ‘immigration points system’, which will make hiring and retaining staff from mainland Europe no longer economically viable for the majority of businesses in this sector. For an industry which had been powered by a third of its workforce coming from mainland Europe, this instilled fears of how their businesses would continue to operate given the fact that the UK was almost in full employment and less young people were entering the industry because of demographics. Coupled with this was a blow to the credibility of hospitality as a career choice, with the bizarre labelling of several of the job roles as ‘unskilled’.

The hospitality, tourism and events industry has now been completely devastated by an even bigger threat – Coronavirus – its impact is immediate and deep. Already, a number of businesses are going into administration, and many others are only just managing to keep their heads above water, as this storm continues to rage.

With travel sanctions now in place and a general drop in footfall due to Coronavirus concerns, including social distancing and people self-isolating with potential Coronavirus symptoms, the industry is having to make tough decisions. Yesterday’s comment from the PM urging people to avoid restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, et al without reassurances on what support was available for these businesses and many finding out that their insurance is useless in these situations – this could be the nail in the coffin for potentially thousands of businesses of all sizes.

We need our industry to not only survive this, but to thrive. Dramatic action needs to be taken by the Government to protect these businesses and the jobs of millions of workers. If you want your favourite pub, restaurant, coffee shop, hotel, bar, etc to still be there for you when you come out of your homes and back into the ‘real world’, call on the government to support them now before it’s too late. Please sign the petition