Last summer, the Eat Out to Help out scheme was used 100 million times, but should it be brought back?
For many businesses, the scheme was a massive help. But for some, particularly in seaside towns where the summer months are already incredibly busy, it led to staff being hugely over worked. Police presence was required at one venue in Leicester when things got out of hand there.
There is also data to suggest that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme led to an increase in Covid cases and was a cause of the start of the second wave of the pandemic, with Boris Johnson agreeing with this in a press conference in October.
Frederick Szydlowski, Co-founder of Embargo and Hospitality Titan disagrees with this:
“The problem with the general perception of last year’s Eat Out Help Out Scheme comes mainly from the misleading data that the public is fed. Many assume that it has led to a major increase of cases. However, three weeks ago Rishi Sunak said that there is link between the EOHO Scheme to the spike of cases during Q4 2020. Looking at the actual data of where cases have been coming from, hospitality has clearly been one of the safest places to be. I strongly believe another similar scheme should definitely be considered as hospitality needs a significant boost and there is no doubt that venue operators have shown that they take safety measures extremely seriously.”
Deliveroo and hundreds of other restaurants have called for the scheme to be reintroduced, along with a number of other measures to help the hospitality industry to survive. These include an extension of the furlough scheme, a 5% vat reduction on food and prioritising hospitality staff for testing and vaccinations.
We spoke to Morris Greenberg, Hospitality Titan and Managing Director at CDG Leisure about this:
“In my view, the government needs to be focused on the process involved in getting the leisure industry reopened, whilst limiting redundancies, as much as possible, that will inevitably have to be made when furlough stops. This includes landlords taking premises back due to back rent owed causing liquidations and a surplus of empty premises coming back to market. So for me I would like to see more focus on policies extending the VAT reduction, extending the business rates holiday for another year and reintroducing the job retention grant. Perhaps some intervention between landlord and tenant negotiations once protection is lifted such as landlords to agree to a percentage of what is owed to be paid over a term. All of this will help the industry to reopen and then once reopened, whilst I am sure the resurgence of people going out will be quick, if it is felt the industry needs help in getting kickstarted policy’s like the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to be reintroduced. Although it will need to be amended in order to take into account the problems that occurred last time.”
What is the Eat Out to Help Out scheme?
Eat Out to Help Out gave diners 50% off their food bill (up to £20 per person) at participating restaurants from Monday – Wednesday. Thousands of restaurants across the country signed up.
Do we need an incentive to get back to pubs, bars and restaurants? Or will we all be eagerly waiting outside on the first day of re-opening, with or without a discount?