This archive report was first published on 21 December 2021.
As the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads across Britain, restaurants, pubs, and retail stores are calling for more government aid to survive the peak holiday season.
Organizations representing over 100,000 businesses sent an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, citing the need for more tax relief and grants.
Although the surge has not yet resulted in a strict lockdown, British businesses argue that the combination of mask mandates, vaccination requirements, and uncertainty during the peak holiday season imperils their survival.
‘The measures were put in place for an open economy that was starting to recover; we are no longer in that space,’ said Matthew Sims, who helped orchestrate the campaign and leads a business improvement group in Croydon.
Restaurants, pubs, and bars have reported a significant decline in business since the government added new restrictions, known as Plan B, on December 8.
At Gordon’s Wine Bar in central London, the festive season was beginning to take hold before the surge gained momentum, but it was ‘very dramatic’ when customers thinned out and several staff members got Covid.
‘You could feel Christmas was coming, the buzz, the lights were on,’ said Amanda Whiteside, the administration manager of Gordon’s. ‘And then it was gone.’
The Coach and Horses pub in Soho is also contending with fewer customers and sick staff, with business off by a third of what would normally be expected.
Fuller, Smith & Turner, the owner of the pub, has called on the Johnson government for more aid, saying that December should be their busiest trading period.
‘We are right back to where we were in March 2020 with the government keeping hospitality open, while effectively telling the public not to socialize,’ said Simon Emeny, the chief executive of Fuller, Smith & Turner.
