Seven out of 10 pubs could close this winter unless they get Government support with soaring bills soon, according to the chairman of the Night Time Industries Association trade body. Sacha Lord said people in hospitality were "at the end of their tether".
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: "I think we are now entering probably the most critical week for my industry in my lifetime. My phone is red hot and people are just at the end of their tether. And we already know that probably seven out of 10 pubs won’t make the winter if this help doesn’t come”.
Mr Lord, who is also the night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, said businesses are already going under “on a daily basis” as he called for clarity in an emergency budget.
Lord Archer, former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, said the Government will be working on the cost-of-living crisis “behind closed doors”. He told Sky News: “They will be discussing it daily. They’ll be working at it daily, but you won’t get official announcements.
“It is, as you rightly say, remarkably strange that we had a new monarch and a new Prime Minister within a week. I mean, a novelist couldn’t write it, it would not be acceptable… I have great sympathy with (Liz Truss).
“I mean, she’s probably sitting in Downing Street with her ministers now, planning what happens after the funeral, because they will rightly be respectful right up until that moment – they’ve got to govern the country after that."
