Hospitality Leaders Poll: Mixed bag around reopening trade

The vast majority of operators experienced no issues with either local authorities or the police before the 4 July reopening weekend, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA/HIM.

Asked whether they had difficulties with either, 93% of operators said they had not. However, around two in three said they had been contacted by both the local authorities and the police before reopening, with 65% saying they had been contacted by the local authority and 69% saying they had been contacted by the police.

As for the weekend itself, the response from across those who did reopen (57%) was mixed, with 50 of the 174 that reopened saying it was ‘busy’ and 54 saying it was ‘quiet’. Another 84 said trade ‘met expectations’.

And when asked how confident they were in the future, of the 308 polled, all of whom are board level operators or founders, 57% expressed a level of confidence, with 11% saying they were ‘confident’ about the future, 42% saying they were ‘quite confident’ and just 3% saying they were ‘very confident’ about the future for their business.

That’s down from the collective 68% who were asked the same question a fortnight ago. Some 44% said they were ‘not confident’ about the future, although operators were polled before the cut in VAT and the discount scheme announced by Rishi Sunak this week.