After the calamity of lockdown, hospitality deserves more respect

The night before Boris Johnson announced to Britain that we would be entering a ‘lockdown’, I was having dinner in Stoke Newington, London, with a friend that had launched one of the most successful venues in Ibiza many years ago. We were reminiscing on how venues are capable of transforming areas and regions. As with Ibiza, so with Shoreditch, Birmingham’s Digbeth, Bristol’s Montpelier, Manchester’s Northern Quarter and all of Brighton.  The restaurant was empty except for us and the proprietor was telling us how nervous he was about what was going to happen.

He was right to be worried. The response of the government to the threat of Covid 19 has been erratic, confusing, contradictory, confounding and enormously damaging.

It should be noted that all was not well even in the run-up to the pandemic. Licensed premises in Britain are subject to some of the most stringent conditions and rules. Yet UK operators are some of the best in the world with a remarkably buoyant and dynamic sector that is part of British ‘soft power’, as Joseph Nye would put it. These firms and premises account for collectively over £130 billion of revenues and 3.2million employees, which is 10 per cent of the workforce and five per cent of national GDP .

State of uncertainty

One of the biggest problems with the Covid response has been the continued uncertainty. Businesses rely on being able to plan, organise, promote and execute. There is a cycle to all areas of hospitality. Supply chains, managing and maintaining staff, scheduling events and – for those in the nightclub, music venue and festival arenas – very long timelines for booking of talent and promotion.  It became clear from very early on that nightclubs and festivals were simply not going to be allowed to open. Being so concerned with the safety of clientele as operators are, there was acknowledgement that to deal with the pandemic initially, stringent measures would be needed.  Many in hospitality sprang into voluntary action with zeal, even providing free meals for those that needed it.

It was never clear, however, why some activities were permitted during the lockdown and not others. Many, like Harvey Goldsmith and Alex Proud, pleaded with government to allow their expertise to be utilised, having experience in setting up mini city-like areas for festivals; their logistical insights could have been transformative. The offers were not taken up. Instead government decided to take advice from ‘experts’ that did not understand this sector at all. Goldsmith, the creator of Live Aid, said that it was clarity, more than subsidies, that was desperately needed.

Refusal to engage

The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) and all the other hospitality associations campaigned for several months to engage with the government. Why were landlords of properties being allowed to continue demanding rent and accumulating arrears while businesses were shut and forced to take loans from banks to keep going? The government did indeed suspend landlords’ ability to evict tenants during the last 12 months, incrementally – with enormous strain and stress on all operators. However, the pandemic response led to a net decline of 5,975 sites in 2020 (five per cent of the total), which represents the actual closure of 9,930 sites along with 4,000 opening for the first time. Those opening faced dire circumstances.

Many applauded Rishi Sunak’s unprecedented furlough scheme, along with the reduction in VAT and business loans. Furlough has been a double-edged sword, however, as one operator told me in Newham during last summer’s Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO) scheme: ‘I can’t get many of my young staff to come in because they’re on furlough and say they don’t feel safe being here’, despite the risk of Covid to young people being minimal.  Government loans have enabled some businesses to continue, but many big names have gone under with thousands of redundancies, all of which has a multiplier effect on families and areas. Many businesses went through CVAs (company voluntary agreements), which meant creditors lost money, with payment of the remainder to be paid over several years.

Blaming hospitality

Was lockdown necessary? The first lockdown was perhaps understandable, given the levels of uncertainty about the virus and how it would behave, although there is much debate as to that. Lockdown is an entirely novel mechanism never used before, and some commentators have questioned its efficacy when weighing up all the risks and all of the costs. This debate continues in comparisons of areas that have stayed relatively open with those that locked down: Sweden with Britain, Florida with California.

But the rationale for subsequent closures seemed far less clear. EOHO provided an enormous boost and restaurants and pubs played their part by investing enormous amounts in social distancing, additional safety measures and table service, all with the arbitrary ‘rule of six’. The result was a tiny transmission rate from hospitality, yet some tried to blame EOHO for spiking positive cases. As Greg Fell, director of Public Health Sheffield, made clear, the risk was minimal from hospitality. There were far higher risks at hospitals and care homes. Meanwhile, nightclubs and festivals have been closed for a year.

One must also account for the experience of so many independents in Britain and the stress of being continually in the dark. While so much of the public has been disciplined, resilient and stoic, there has been an unpleasant trend to blame people – joggers in parks, drinkers outside bars or people having picnics – for being ‘irresponsible’.  The combined toll of vague timelines, dates, strategy, insights and opening, along with erratic open-close rulings, tiers, rules rushed through without consultation and consideration of impacts for businesses has been enormous. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than with the idea of having ‘Covid passports’ or ‘certificates’ as a means to allow access to premises.

Nightclubs and festivals

The businesses most severely impacted in the ecosystem of night-and-day operations have been nightclubs and festivals. They have been closed for a year, with many attempts to demonstrate how venues could be opened effectively last summer, prior to the enormously successful and impressive vaccination roll-out. So, it has been somewhat ironic to hear Michael Gove talk about nightclubs so much recently. As noted above, nightclubs and later-night bars have been subjected to enormous restrictions historically in Britain. Venues have faced measures like Public Protection Orders and have been described one-sidedly as being ‘hotspots’ of ‘anti-social behaviour’, rather than the places where we might find the new Stormzy, be inspired by the creations of London Fashion Week or provided with such wonders as Ian Schraeger Hotels.

This is regrettable, considering Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s team when at London’s Mayoral Office was fully briefed – and encouraging – about the enormous value and benefits that nightclubs bring to cities and regions, leading directly to the appointment of a Night Time Commission and ‘Czar’ under the current mayoralty. This has been replicated now in Manchester and Bristol, with other cities planning such measures. Nightclub operators are some of our most capable entrepreneurs. Their businesses stage the best of British and international talent, and offer an academy for the next generation, with exceptional technical and operational staff. Many young people work in the night-time and hospitality industries to subsidise their studies and lives. It is impossible to imagine the transformation of Hackney, Peckham, Brighton, Leeds, Glasgow or Nottingham without nightclubs. They bring new trade into areas and they help increase much-needed revenue. Changing perceptions of an area also leads to the creation of new housing projects and brings other businesses into these areas. As Sara Tate, MD of advertising agency Mother, said at an NTIA event in 2016: ‘We came to Shoreditch because of the nightlife.’

Social community

One positive outcome of lockdown, it could be argued, is that absence makes the heart grow fonder: many now realise how important pubs, clubs and venues are to our everyday lives and indeed to the British way of life. The Romans brought the original tabernae to these shores and, over the two thousand years since, our public houses, inns and gastro bars have been both the envy of the world and places to meet, debate, fall in (and out) of love and be part of a social community. The Enlightenment would not have been possible without the Salons, at coffee houses and pubs. If this last year has shown us anything, it is how important these cultural hubs, these destination experiences are – for tourism, for local business and revenue, for jobs and for community.

Coming on top of long-term trends, such as the loss of so many pubs each year, the response to Covid-19 has left all hospitality on tenterhooks. The love so many have for them, however, is keenly felt.

Sacha Lord, night-time adviser for Greater Manchester, has asked the government repeatedly why it is that ‘non-essential retail’ was allowed to open on 12 April, yet hospitality was told to wait another five weeks. The lack of a clear evidence-based response has led him and Hugh Osmond to take the government to the High Court.

Freelancers in particular have been terribly impacted. Not fitting into many of the original criteria for claiming either loans or any supplements, some five million of them have suffered immensely. Excluded UK has chronicled this diligently.

Ongoing restrictions

Having lobbied government consistently to listen, staging protests such as #WeMakeEvents, and creating groups such as One Industry One Voice many working in festivals and events are despairing. Harvey Goldsmith has announced that because of the risk of not knowing what the government will do next and not having adequate insurance provision, he will not be staging any festivals this summer. While Melvin Benn of Festival Republic has announced he is confident that Reading and Leeds Festivals will go ahead, many are far less so.

That said, a demonstration of how much demand there is can be seen by the fact that many of the smaller independent festivals sold out within an hour or two of announcing this year.  A major concern, however, is that many local councils, who have the authority over licensing in their jurisdiction along with the police, can impose an array of restrictive measures. We Are The Fair CEO Nick Morgan, one of the protagonists featured in The Political Economy of Informal Events, has talked extensively about these issues locally and the impact on trying to stage an event.

This is particularly of concern with regard to so-called ‘Covid passports’. Trials have been set for a number of events. We have just seen Cinemas UK announce that they will not be asking to see any health documents from their clientele. Similarly, Hot Tub Comedy Club in Liverpool, which was a part of the government trial, has stepped away, citing the fact that it was not made aware it would mean Covid certificate checks. The British Retail Consortium has now come out against this, too. As Peter Marks, CEO of REKON UK, a 44-venue chain, told me: ‘I was bombarded by furious customers telling me they won’t be coming to any of my clubs if we have Covid passport checks.’  Many others in the sector have been vocally challenging this – and as Silkie Carlo at Big Brother Watch asks, where does this all stop?

While many in local authorities now understand the value of clubs, bars, events and hospitality generally, thanks to persistent campaigning in recent years, some of the prevailing influencing factors that have shaped the past decade and a half have impacted the outlook of many. There has been a low tolerance for any kind of risk. Some argue that risk assessments and health-and-safety concerns slow business down significantly without making it safer. There has been an impulse that ‘when in doubt, regulate’ rather than innovate or create ambitious infrastructure. This has led to a perfect storm in terms of the impacts on business.

Reopening Britain

How do we recover from all this? We need a robust approach that allows the dynamic and creative industries to flourish. The government must stop contradicting itself, be very clear and honest. That means if it really is ‘data not dates’, then act like it. There have numerous U-turns on policy and government’s inability to listen to Britain’s fourth largest sector has resulted in immense loss. However, the tenacity, confidence, optimism and energy of our operator teams provide an army of possibility. They need to be allowed to open up fully. To be encouraged and not to be further undermined. We can come back from this – we can be the world leader in cultural entertainment and hospitality – but only if we allow our phenomenal practitioners to do their work unfettered.  We must not allow accrued rent arrears to be imposed entirely on tenants.

I have not listed a series of ‘take away’ points here. But overriding is this: Britain has legally allowable 24-hour licensing as part of the UK Licensing Act.  Local authorities have never generally permitted much of that – and often actively prevented it. Reopening should be accompanied by 24-hour hubs – areas where clusters of nightclubs bars and venues can operate, can acquire cheap freeholds and very long-term leases, and attract young people to live, work and play there.  They should also allow more places to open late, past the standard-issue 2AM. This way we can ensure a world-class offering. 

Visit Britain often provides examples of our sector to attract global tourists and we know from Vegas to Nashville, Ibiza to Austin, Amsterdam and Barcelona, that hospitality makes cities and regions more desirable all round. It’s time to allow this to happen now.

Alan D Miller

co-founder, Open For All

Alan Miller started his career staging international events in the music business. He is the co-founder of London’s Old Truman Brewery cultural business centre, which helped regenerate Shoreditch, and was CEO of The Vibe Bar for 20 years. He is also a film and TV producer/director.

Alan sat on The Arts Council’s UK London Arts Board and ran the New York Salon, a forum for inter-disciplinary, open debate with speakers from around the world.

As a founder and first chairman of the Night Time Industries Association, Alan represented cultural interests across Britain as well as around the globe.

Alan co-founded Recovery, bringing together hospitality and arts groups along with teachers, scientists, doctors, parents and citizens to launch the collective call for a calm, reasonable and balanced response to the pandemic.

Alan is writing in a personal capacity.

Follow Alan on Twitter: @alanvibe