Government urged to allow ordering at the bar from May

Trade body UKHospitality is also calling on the Government to allow diners to be able to order via a hatch or outdoor till  - rather than rely on table service - on outdoor re-opening on 12 April after revealing that 600,000 jobs and 12,000 businesses in the hospitality have so far been lost as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

With only a minority of pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and leisure facilities being able to trade outdoors from 12 April, UKHospitality is warning that even more jobs are in danger and even more businesses face closure.

Until restrictions are lifted, hospitality operators will not be able to break even and, with the expectation that consumer confidence will take time to recover, trading is unlikely to return to anything like normal levels for at least six months, it says

With the continued success of the vaccination programme, the trade body is urging the Government to follow ‘data not dates’ and relax restrictions that are in place at different stages of the roadmap.

“The last 12 months have been truly awful for our sector. That is why any controls that limit commercial activity upon reopening should be necessary and proportionate and we back the recent call from the Public Accounts Committee for the Government to provide the evidence for such limits,” says UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls.

“While any restrictions remain in place, our pubs and restaurants can only break even and the viability of thousands remains at risk – we lost over 12,000 in the last year alone.”

UKHospitality is also asking for the Government to allow hotels with self-contained rooms to be able to open alongside other self-contained accommodation on 12 April.