There has to be something fundamentally wrong - restaurant closure

Not always the case. Our local city council have bought up a lot of prime High Street premises over the years, most of which are now empty and have been for years. They bought our Wilkinsons store premises a year before Wilkinsons collapsed and it's been empty and getting more and more derelict ever since. Likewise they bought a Frankie & Benny premises which also closed after a year or so and has been empty since. Rents being asked by the letting agents are absolutely stupidly high, but council can't accept less as they have to be seen to make a percentage investment return on the amount they paid - it's easier for them to justify a zero return left empty rather than justify a 1 or 2 percent return which shows they made a poor investment decision. Being empty seems to be more "excusable" due to the market conditions than letting at a low percentage which shows a bad decision.!!

Actually they did - which is why the government is having to bail out the few remaining ones.

Those people who have worked for years in the hospitality sector, undergone training and worked unsociable hours in often physically demanding roles should just be reassured that they’ll find something else? - that's what the miners, the textile workers, etc. were told....

I know that . But there wont be if the decline continues.

Ask Rachel Reeves

Depends what you mean by a zombie business, I think. For example, I think a small shop or cafe which makes a modest living for the hard-working couple who run it (and perhaps for a couple of part-time workers such as students) is a good thing and far better than an empty unit on the high street.

In a town centre near me, there are several food vans including one which sells Ethiopian food. I think the food is delicious and I'd have to travel a long way to find anything similar. In my opinion, the small family businesses offer a unique selling point and can attract shoppers from elsewhere. When I go to another town or city, I'm not interested in their branches of Primark, M&S, TG Jones or Waterstones - we have our own! I'm interested in one town's old-fashioned and idiosyncratic hardware shop which is like a Tardis, another town's shop filled with beautiful Indian furniture and homewares, and the vegan cafe selling delicious cakes that are the largest I have ever seen, anywhere.

If they’d doubled their prices it would have worked 🤷‍♀️

more people would get a table, it would still be a special night out

Thete are far fewer Steel Mills to chose from, than pubs and restaurants (schools, carehomes, factories .. and all the other places that need Cooks, Chefs & Porters)

it isn't only Brexit tho. It is over on mainland Europe too. And of course the USA is well known for making waiting staff rely on tips to live.

Stupidity?

Why did pubs ban Reeves then?

i think we need families with kids and old people in towns too though. And a lot of these office blocks have lifts etc and garage parking so would be ideal for the elderly or families.

Shrinkflation is part of the problem.

We made an effort to visit our fave restaurant about once every 6 weeks and shrinkflation has caused me to boycott out favourite restaurant.

They used to do am amazing I've cream sundae for £6.50, they've put it up to £9.50 AND cut the ingredients down to barely more than ice cream and a brownie. It's not even homemade ice-cream. They've gotten rid of the nuts, sauce, fruit and whipped cream. It's a brownie and shop bought ice cream in a cup for nearly a tenner. I can bake a brownie and scoop icecream myself for that price and the dessert was the main reason we went. We are lucky to have money, we would have paid more and kept our usual visit frequency jut we aren't going someone where they are charging more and offering less.

I would have paid more than £10 for the bloody sundae if they'd kept the quality.

Takeaways. That's the other killer. It's fast turnover, cheaper and no need for attentive staff and nice surroundings. Takeaway is so prevalent that some people never think that they eat out regularly, despite getting a takeaway maccies, subway, kfc weekly.

High Street. As a family, we used to "visit the city" and tack on a restaurant visit to make a day of it. Not now as there are independent shops. All the big names are online so rather than paying £10 to park 🙄 and make sure I'm there at 9am so I'm not stuck in traffic, I go online. Often vinted as there is so much overconsumption it's like an outlet store of new clothes.

The solution imo is converting office blocks to flats and making them affordable for the Double Income No Kids market so they live centrally and put money into the high street and restaurants. But no. Let's mandate office working and commutes and make it easier to build new 4 beds on the outskirts of town with no infrastructure which young people can't afford and mandates a car.

As someone said uptjread. The country wanted to be poorer so voted for brexit and tories. Now complaining that chickens have come home to roost and it's all somehow all the current govts fault.

Why ? Is she responsible for Brexit? You know, the self inflicted disaster that turned the country into an economic basket case?

Oh well that’s okay then. Those people who have worked for years in the hospitality sector, undergone training and worked unsociable hours in often physically demanding roles should just be reassured that they’ll find something else?! We don’t say that about the steel industry do we?

We have had a low wage economy since the 1980s, it was an underpinning policy of Thatcherism. If we want to move away from a low wage economy, and have people paid a proper wage for a days work, it’s going to be short term pain, for longer term gains.
Zombie businesses, who are barely ticking by, paying NMW, and not generating any real profit, are not good for the economy. The resources that they are using need to be freed up, for Buisness that can pay more, and generate more revenue.
This is not a “one term parliament” problem.. this is a 20 - 30 year piece of work.

4 in my town all closed in the last couple of weeks. Some had people's weddings booked.
Saw a news report about this a couple of weeks ago. One guy had had his rates increased by over £100,000 a year....

what's it got to do with her though? business rates aren't the only issue here.

Ask Rachel Reeves

Recently I know of a VERY popular butchers closing. It was full every day. But the family running it had had enough of it taking over their life and none of the grown up kids wanted to take over.

(not in UK)
Our village bakery closed down a few years ago because the younger family members didn't want to take over. You can only really sell these things as a family business, because you have to rely on the family working in the business for less than NMW. It isn't sustainable (we bake all our own bread now, it is fine but i do miss their lovely bread and cakes)

Same for a lot of restaurants and other small businesses: the kids are working in there around school and at weekends, etc, and that is the only way they stay viable.

PP talking as though the rise in NMW meaning staff are "too expensive" is a bad thing - it isn't for staff. The restaurant business is hard work, and they deserve all they can get.

Pre-Covid the restaurant business was already having huge problems. Many of the big names (michelin starred or not) were already reducing their opening days to Thursday - Sunday. Additionally many were stopping the split shift model and either sticking to Lunchtimes-Early evening or evening only.

If we want to follow the complete capitalist model, we have to say the market will regulate itself. But - there is a reason all these places are being "redeveloped" and i cannot work it out except as a tax-efficient way to invest or park your capital. Because all i see (UK, France, Germany... whereever i have been over the last few years) are newly redeveloped office blocks that are completely empty. Or my local town that built a beautiful, totally unnecessary, middle of town shopping arcade (really beautiful) which wrecked the high street and now the shops in there are closing. Late stage capitalism is a bitch.

So many businesses can't afford the rent/lease on buildings owned by investment companies. I have 2 friends that have leased shops on our High Street, both are closing due to ridiculous rent increases. one going from £180 in 2019 to £475 today. Just pure greed by investment companies.

The govt continues to rip society and economy to shreds. It’s not even really relevant whether it’s lab/con - they’ve both been on a mission of destruction my entire adult life.

Or a dependence on tips like America. Workers should expect a fair wage.

Pretty much this.

The contraction we're seeing now is a correction. The bubble has burst.

'Government policies on NI '

So do you think the NHS was left in an acceptable state by the previous government!