Downey’s nine-month rent time out proposal to be submitted to Government

Jonathan Downey, founder of Hospitality Union, is to submit a formal proposal to the Treasury next week for a nine-month rent-free period for hospitality, leisure and retail businesses forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Signed by CEOs and backed by UK Hospitality, the proposal will call for a national rent-free period to push back rent from April-December 2020, so that operators will not have to pay until the first quarter of next year.

To ensure landlords don’t lose out, each lease would then be extended by nine months, effectively postponing the payment of rent until operators are able to pay.

The #NationalTimeOut Campaign will also cover landlords themselves, applying a corresponding nine-month period on their loan repayments where the debt is secured on premises benefiting from the rent postponement.

“So many in our sector are going to need something extraordinary to get through the next few months and to make it worthwhile to carry on afterwards,” Downey said.

“I don’t know if we’ll get this, but it won’t cost the Government anything and nobody has come up with a better plan yet to help more businesses.”

“The national time out is essentially based on a German model where you pick up and freeze loans, debt and rent repayments, and then restart them when the economy restarts,” explained Kate Nicholls, UK Hospitality CEO. “Provided you’ve got the buy-in from all stakeholders, it’s the neatest and easiest solution.”

“Government will like it because it’s not costing them any money, and the alternative is that they would have to intervene with cash,” she said, “and I don’t see any appetite within the Treasury to put their hand in their pocket again.”

Hoping to have the proposal complete by Monday next week (20 April), Downey said he will also be seeking support for the campaign from the Music Venues Trust, the NTIA, UK Active “and any other industry body whose members would benefit.”