A new report has come up with figures showing that the hospitality industry is still in dire straits with its revenue down 45% on the comparable period to the end of quarter 3 in 2019.

The pandemic in bringing about the closure of businesses, notably in the hospitality industry, created a new crisis because of the need for businesses to continue to pay their rents. Many could not.

One of the things people have said time and again is that during the pandemic the government has always acted too late in taking remedial action.

When the pandemic hit hospitality so very badly, the Chancellor introduced a reduced rate of 5% on restaurant food and hotel room charges.

Probably in the minds of the general public, restaurants, pubs and hotels make good money because they certainly know how to charge!

Has the British government lost its grip over the handling of covid-19 such that it has decided to allow a free-for-all and we just “hope for the best”?

It’s a “home day” today – a day when I wonder what I have achieved with the 400 blogs I have now completed. You can read them all and see for yourself!

Without a doubt covid-19 has blitzed people’s plans to get married on anything other than a minute scale for a considerable time now.

It will no doubt come as a great relief to my tenants and lessees throughout the country to learn that the rent moratorium has now been extended by a further nine months to March 2022.

The Prime Minister’s announcement that the lockdown will continue for another four weeks has thrown the hospitality industry into confusion and disarray.

15^th May 2021 will be one of those dates which will go down in history as a marker when things changed, probably for ever.

I know we have a lot to say about the hospitality industry but there is no doubt that this sector of the economy has been left holding the heavy end of the coffin.

The anticipated extension of the rental moratorium has arrived. For commercial tenants, the moratorium has been extended to the end of June.

Who would be in the hospitality industry today with all the pressures and problems?

It is a real blow for some hoteliers and other hospitality operators but although there were insurance claims for business interruption, insurance companies fell over themselves to avoid making payouts, claiming that the cover did not extend to such exceptional circumstances or that the wording did not cover the present situation etc.

Now we have got a week into 2021, life has settled down and holidays and so forth are over, subject of course to the interesting diversion carrying on in Washington DC. How will that play out?

Today has recorded a record number of new cases in the UK since the start of the pandemic at 60,916. Deaths are recorded at 830.

So here we are at last, at long last! The end of what has been a pretty awful year one way or another. 2020 reaches its welcome conclusion very shortly – indeed in parts of the world it is already 2021.

Today has been a busy day. The first batch of news concerns Brexit and the watershed that the Brexit deal with the EU has passed through the Commons.

Now the new lockdown has started in England hospitality businesses find themselves with quite mixed feelings about the future and what to do.

Heathrow Airport is seldom out of the news for long and has certainly been making a lot of noise in the past nine months, although not so much of that noise has been made by aeroplanes.

If you are thinking of buying a hotel, it may be time to think again, or maybe not!

The chancellor’s eat out to help out scheme is now closed. Considering the novelty of the idea when it was announced, it does appear to have been an incredible success with some restaurants saying they have never had a busier August than this one. The scheme has cost a great deal of money with well over 64 million meals being sold.

The chancellor’s eat out to help out scheme has one further day to run after today, next Monday which is a bank holiday. Although there have been calls for the chancellor to extend his scheme this has not been done and it would be surprising if it were given that the ball is being picked up by others.

When the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his mini-statement a week ago, generally public opinion seemed to be almost wholly in favour. We were being offered £10 a head to eat out on certain days in August and a reduction in VAT for the hospitality industry for six months to January – all to give the industry a well-needed shot in the arm for its very survival.

By the end of the coming week, we shall have seen major new relaxations of the social-distancing requirements. Pubs and hotels are re-opening and we shall see a further week of unlimited shopping. The following week travel opens up again and we hear talk of the quarantine measures being relaxed for certain low-risk countries.

This bill is due to have its committee stage in the House of Lords today, 16^th June. It is understood that there will be some debate and if amendments are made it will have to go back to the House of Commons. Otherwise it can be expected to move forward to Royal Assent pretty quickly.

Those who think that the lockdown was merely a temporary blip with everything going back to normal after it is over are in for a shock. Indeed they should already be braced for an enormous change.

The new law heralds the most significant change in our insolvency regime for a number of years and could be particularly welcome following the effects of the pandemic on our economy.

he UK has always been a country where using one’s initiative has been regarded as a positive attribute – entrepreneurism and making the best of a situation.

The UK hospitality industry lives permanently on the edge. It has always been highly competitive and making a profit is by no means guaranteed. With the compulsory closure of hotels, pubs and restaurants, the country should be prepared for a very different view of the industry when the lockdown is over.