More restaurants are closing due to crippling lack of staff

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The total jumped from 856 in 2020-21 to 1,406 in the past year, according UHY Hacker Young.

The accountancy firm’s Peter Kubik said restaurants are facing spiralling price rises, decreased consumer spending and a labour shortage.

The Office for National Statistics meanwhile says Britain’s pubs, hotels and restaurants now have a record 176,000 vacancies.

This was up 10,200 on the previous quarter and the sector accounts for more than one in eight of all posts available.

Previous research by UHY Hacker Young found total restaurant losses have surged to more than £800million in the past six months as businesses felt the effects of major restructuring programmes following the pandemic.

Mr Kubik said: “Pressure is rising on the restaurant sector every day. More and more of them are shutting their doors as a result.”

“Restaurants that only just managed to survive the pandemic thanks to government support are now facing fresh challenges in the form of rising inflation, a post-Brexit labour shortage and consumers who simply cannot afford to spend as much.

Kubik “Smaller restaurants are suffering the most from a shortage of EU staff post- Brexit. Many cannot hire enough staff to serve the number of covers they need to stay profitable.

“That’s one of the reasons for the raft of closures we’re seeing.”

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