The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme initially proved invaluable for the hospitality industry. When it ended, some of Richmond’s pubs and restaurants were able to take matters into their own hands. 

The hospitality sector was the industry damaged the most by the pandemic in June, with 80% of hospitality firms stopping business in April (ONS 2020). As a result, the government’s £500m ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme came as a welcome aid and relative success for the sector, with restaurant reservations rising ‘53% compared with the Monday-to-Wednesday period in August 2019’ (BBC 2020). However, the state funding was stopped on the 31st of August, and once again, local restaurants and pubs were chiefly left to their own devices. With Covid-19 infections rising rapidly yet again, and the outlook for the future looking bleak, many of these pubs and restaurants decided to take advantage of the reduced VAT and extend the scheme into the winter months themselves. 

In the London Borough of Richmond, several restaurants and pubs have extended the scheme into October and November, while a few have slightly altered the schemes to invent new, creative offers of their own. Bills had already extended a variation of the ‘Eat out to help Out’ scheme into September, but they have now also continued it until the end of October. Similarly, Franco Manca is offering a variation of the scheme. The Beech House, in Hampton Hill, is also participating, offering an exact continuation of the scheme throughout October. However, these restaurants are all parts of, or owned by, wider chains of restaurants. 

It is no secret that small businesses have been much more greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 234,000 small businesses stopping trading as of the 23rd of September due to the pandemic (Simply Business 2020). Although the vast majority of businesses that are extending the scheme can only afford to do so because they are larger chains, the resilience of small business owners does not seem to be falling. Indeed, in a survey conducted on thousands of small business owners by Simply Business last month, it was revealed that 85 percent of them intend to remain self-employed, and 1 in 5 have adapted new technologies. Hamsa Bharadwaj, a local small business owner, said her ‘business, that was built over 3 years, was slaughtered by Covid in 3 months’. Despite this, however, she ‘remains optimistic’ for the future, a reminder that at a time when government support and any remainder of public positivity seem to be dying out, people nevertheless continue to demonstrate immense resolve and determination. As a community, it is instrumental that we support our local, smaller businesses, and help them to rebuild from the detrimental effects of this pandemic. 

References:

https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2020/09/new-covid-19-report-impact-on-uk-small-business/