London restaurateurs slam government’s ‘token’ Eat Out to Help Out scheme

Around 72,000 venues are participating in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's initiative
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London restaurateurs today said the newly-launched Eat Out to Help Out scheme are a “token” gesture and Government should focus on fixing the “broken” rents and rates system.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s flagship voucher scheme to aid the beleaguered hospitality industry launches today, offering a 50% discount up to £10 a head on meals on Monday to Wednesdays at 72,000 venues in August – traditionally the quietest days in a quiet month for the sector.

Jonathan Downey, who runs Street Feast and the Hospitality Union, said: “If the purpose of the scheme is to encourage people back into restaurants, then it all helps but it’s nowhere near enough when so many have been terrified by this virus.

"It may also be a cash bonanza for the big chains but the amounts involved for the smaller groups and independents are so token as to be meaningless. If this Chancellor doesn’t do something soon to address the issue of the mounting rent debt, half of all restaurants and two million jobs in hospitality will be gone by the end of the year.”

Downey said his Dinerama venue in Hackney will likely close next month, although it could remain open until the end of the year.

David Moore, owner of Michelin-starred Pied à Terre in Fitzrovia, said of the voucher scheme: “It’s tokenism, sure it will help a few smaller restaurants, but you can’t actually eat in most places in London on the required budget.

“Business rates need reforming, this is the perfect time for a seismic shift towards a sales tax - don’t bring back the 15% VAT on food but introduce a universal sales tax - two tiers one for bricks and mortar and a slightly higher one for web based.”

Moore called for help on rents, an extension of the furlough tapering until next March and a scrapping of newly-introduced extended congestion charge hours, which is hurting trade. Pied à Terre will reopen in September.

Jamie Barber, who runs Hush in Mayfair and the Hache and Cabana chains, welcomed the scheme. He said: “It is a clever incentive by the government to help overcome the general reticence that some people have to venture out after a long weary lockdown. It also gives us as a sector the opportunity to show our guests the extensive measures that we have taken to keep them safe and reassured.”

However he cautioned: “August will he gone in a flash, and the autumn is likely to be even more difficult as the weather changes and fears of a second wave become more prevalent.

“The government still needs to crack the rent issue with a business rates free 2021 almost a certainty. There will have been no point in trying to preserve business only for them to fail when reverting back to a broken system.”

Barber said customers were preferring to eat on outside terraces with a reticence to ear inside while local High Streets were performing better than city centre locations.

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