London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Aug 10, 2025

Without More Office Workers and Tourists, London Restaurants at Risk of ‘Complete Failure’

Without More Office Workers and Tourists, London Restaurants at Risk of ‘Complete Failure’

UK Hospitality has warned that without a coordinated effort to encourage people back into central London, hospitality businesses are going to fail
Restaurant trade body UK Hospitality wants to see a new, coordinated campaign to encourage tourists and office workers back into London. A failure by policymakers to do so “risks [the] complete failure of [the] hospitality and tourism sectors,” such is the importance of those two customer bases for hospitality businesses, the trade body has warned.

In a letter to the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London, over 90 businesses have highlighted “the acute risk” to London’s hospitality and tourism sectors, as well as retail leisure and supply chains, if tourists and office workers are not encouraged back into the city.

UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “The capital is at a very real risk of finding itself totally left behind the rest of the U.K. and global competitors. Around the country, life is beginning to return to some degree of normality. People are returning to work and hospitality businesses are slowly starting to bounce back from a disastrous few months.”

The letter - like the one written by the co-owner of St. John, signed by dozens of London restaurateurs last month - calls on local and national leaders to “put politics aside and deliver a coordinated campaign to support businesses reliant in these income streams and help save potentially tens of thousands of jobs.”

“Outside of London, we are seeing trading back to 70 percent of pre-COVID levels, in some cases,” Nicholls explained. “The case is much bleaker in London. Some businesses are struggling to hit double figures and the reality is that businesses are going to fail, with the associated job losses, if nothing is done.”

As as been known since early in the pandemic, central London restaurants, which rely on high footfall from both tourists and office workers, to sustain high rents and rates, were particularly vulnerable to lockdown and its effects on the movement of Londoners and visitors to the capital.

“Hospitality and tourism businesses in London rely in large part on the twin revenue streams of tourists and office workers,” Nicholls observed. “[Tourism agency] Visit Britain’s latest forecast for inbound tourism to the U.K. in 2020 show[s] a decline of 73 percent in visits and a decline of 79 percent in spending. The estimated drop in London’s international tourism spend is £12 billion.”

Furthermore, and despite a government campaign designed to urge workers back into offices over the coming weeks, estimates show that only 30 percent of British workers have returned to their offices, with just 15 percent of businesses expecting the majority of staff to be back by the end of September.

Nicholls cautioned that unless action is taken to get people back into the city, “hospitality and tourism businesses, retail, leisure and supply chain businesses, which combine to provide 20 percent of all employment in London, will be ruined.”

She added that a joined-up plan between policymakers in national government and in the Mayor of London’s office must do all it can to return footfall back to central London’s restaurants and hospitality businesses.

“Otherwise, we will see widespread job losses and the destruction of years of progress in establishing London as one of the world’s leading cities for commerce and tourism.”

While restaurants, particularly those in high rent areas, operate at lower capacities - with social distancing measures in place - with fewer customers, they also face the ongoing uncertainty over what happens to the rent they owe for the months they were closed, and unable to generate revenue, during lockdown.

Despite efforts made by the likes of UK Hospitality on behalf of businesses, calling on the government to intervene and pay up to 50 percent of owed rent for the last six months, no action has yet been taken.

As things stand, those restaurant tenants which were unable to pay rent during the pandemic, will be unprotected from eviction at the end of September, unless they have reached an individual agreement with their landlord.

A month later, the government scheme protecting millions of jobs for restaurant workers will come to and, leaving thousands vulnerable to redundancy.

The Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme, alongside new permissions to trade outdoors, gave restaurants a boost in August. It’s now September and restaurants all over the city need more help.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Street justice isn’t pretty but how else do you deal with this kind of insanity? Sometimes someone needs to standup and say something
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign U.S.-brokered accord at White House outlining transit link via southern Armenia
Barcelona Resolves Captaincy Issue with Marc-André ter Stegen
US Justice Department Seeks Release of Epstein and Maxwell Grand Jury Exhibits Amid Legal and Victim Challenges
Trump Urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Resign Over Alleged Chinese Business Ties
Scotland’s First Minister Meets Trump Amid Visit Highlighting Whisky Tariffs, Gaza Crisis and Heritage Links
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
×