LAST ORDERS AS HOSPITALITY SECTOR UNDER HUGE PRESSURES AND GREENE KING CALLS ON THE GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE SUPPORT AFTER ANNOUNCING PUB CLOSURES AND JOB LOSSES

The hospitality sector has taken some of the largest financial hits during the past 8 months, with national lockdown and enforced closures having massive impacts on the pub industry in particular.

Some pubs have already succumbed to their financial strains and others are at the brink of closure as local lockdown restrictions placed upon them are drastically cutting into the precious profits they need to survive.

With the second wave spread of the virus showing no signs of slowing, Greene King who operate a number of pubs & restaurants within Salford have announced that one third or 79 of their venues will have to close permanently with up to 800 job losses.

Although none of the closures have been identified in Salford as yet, it still paints a stark picture of the problems that publicans are facing, and with the spectre of a second national lockdown at some point in the not too distant future, the outlook for Salford's hospitality industry is looking grim to say the least.

Greene King operates a number of pubs and restaurants within Salford. From the Bridgewater and John Gilbert in Worsley to the White Horse in Swinton, Barley Farm in Eccles, the Royal Sovereign in Weaste and The Moorings in Boothstown.

Although no announcement has been made on which venues will close, it has left those reliant on the jobs and income they provide extremely anxious and worried for their futures.

The owners and operators have done all they can to ensure the safety of the public and it was just over a month ago that the Government message was to get out and support them, now it seems that they are being abandoned to the wind and left to fend for themselves.

One landlord we spoke to who wishes to remain anonymous told us that he had staked his life savings and home on renovations to his pub, only for lockdown to decimate his earnings and leave him in the heart breaking situation in which he stands to loose everything as the banks move in.

Kier Starmer and the Labour Party have challenged the governments stances on local lockdowns which are by the evidence, clearly not working as infection rates increase. The hospitality industry is an easy target to blame for the rises but it can not be helped but be noticed in the data that the infection rates have increased side by side with the new college and university terms, most of the major hot spots are focused around university areas and the majority of those who are becoming infected at the moment are of the younger age groups.

It is time for a reality check and another look at the evidence in the data. The hospitality sector operated for months whilst maintaining low infection rates in most areas in the country and yet they seem to be taking the brunt of the blame for the recent spiking spread.

Manchester's universities have recently had to put all learning online for the foreseeable future in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus across its campuses.

Over 500 students and faculty at Manchester Met alone have tested positive for the virus and it is feared that it is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

However, the blame can not be put blame on the students who were promised and have paid for an education and the university experience, which clearly they are not getting. It is just common sense in that when you place so many people into close proximities with each other, the routes for the virus to spread multiply and those newly infected people will then go on to add to the exponential spread. This is very much a failure to understand the simple mechanisms which allow infection rates to exponentially grow.

Whatever the outcome in the coming weeks, for some in the hospitality industry their fate is sealed, they will lose jobs, lose their income, be forced to find alternative work in an already diminishing job market and ultimately many face being forced on to benefits.

It is predicted that more job losses in the sector will follow, with pub Chain Fullers admitting that they could be looking at 500+ job losses at some point soon unless their is a radical change and support from the government.

The virus may have the potential to kill but it is also killing jobs and local economies just as much so.