British takeaways campaign for rent holidays

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Rent Holidays:

In the wake of the
coronavirus British restaurants and takeaways are asking their
landlords to allow them a rent holiday as they say their businesses
are “on the brink”.

The British Takeaway
Campaign (BTC) represents restaurants and takeaways throughout the
country, most of them small businesses without huge resources behind
them.

Most commercial
tenants pay their rents quarterly in advance on the quarter days, and
as the next one is due next week (1^st April) the group is
calling for an immediate three-month freeze.

The BTC group has
warned that without this help from landlords, many thousands of
Britain’s restaurants and takeaways will be facing insolvency “within
weeks, if not days”.

Ibrahim Dogus BTC
chair has written a letter to the major landlord trade bodies
including the British Property Federation and Revo:

“We appreciate
that landlords will have significant concerns for their income and in
recent years have had to cope with the demise of traditional
retailing and its impact on the high street,”

“However,
restaurants and takeaways simply do not have the capital to meet
their rent obligations while they struggle to cope with the
challenges coronavirus has brought.”

Dogus reminded
landlords that without the survival of these restaurants they would
be facing long voids with no rents and business rates to pay. It
would be of “mutual interest” to save these businesses says
Dugas.

Prime Minister Boris
Johnson had ordered the closure of all pubs, restaurants and bars
across the UK from last Sunday, and he appealed to all people to stay
at home and isolate unless absolutely necessary, and to avoid close
contact other than with family members (social distance – keeping 2
metres apart), to help to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Restaurants are to
be allowed to offer takeaway services while taking precautionary
measures, but this will put even more pressure on traditional
takeaways if pubs and restaurants enter the takeaway market, as they
appear to be doing.

The BTC has
confirmed that the British hospitality industry is “on the brink”,
stating that while some landlords have moved to offering rent
holidays or deferments / rescheduling of rent payments, these appear
to remained in the minority.

“Our members tell
us that the majority of landlords are refusing to provide any
flexibility on this issue. In our view, this is irresponsible,”
says Dogus.

Pubs and restaurants
are already laying off staff due to the crisis, but chancellor Rishi
Sunak last week said the government would underwrite wages and pay up
to 80 per cent of the wages for those staff who are unable to work as
a result of Covid-19.

*The traditional English quarter days are: March 25, June 24, September 29 and December 25. In Scotland the traditional quarter days or term days are: 28 February, 28 May, 28 August, 28 November. The modern quarter days: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July.

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