The government must support the North’s decimated hospitality sector

As the Northern Powerhouse Conference gets underway today, coronavirus will be front and centre for much of the discussion. The long-term legacy of this pandemic will be staring our communities in the face for years to come. We already know that the pandemic is hitting hardest those who are most vulnerable – health-wise, socially and economically. It sometimes feels that the government hasn’t got a clue about what the reality is for those of us facing a second lockdown, or indeed, for those of us who have been in some form of lockdown since July – as is the case for many in the North. Maybe they haven’t got any friends who work as employees in the hospitality industry, but I have.

Take my friend Abigail, for example, who works for a well-known restaurant chain in Leeds. Currently facing Tier 2 restrictions, the restaurant is still open but footfall is way down – some weeks by 70%. The response by management has been to cut staff hours to keep people on while keeping the business operational. Abigail has seen her shifts go from 30 hours a week to six hours a week. It means she is still employed – and therefore not a blemish on government unemployment figures – but she is struggling to pay her rent and bills.

Abigail has talked to her boss, but he is also in a quandary. He knows that most of his staff won’t be able to get another job in the current climate if he lays them off. In fact, only around 1% of workers who have lost their jobs are being re-employed at the moment. Only 20% are working their original hours, and most have chewed through their savings. For Abigail’s boss, the question is: “Would it be more profitable to shut the site than keep it open?”. Restaurants aren’t shutting because there’s no financial support but the Tier 2 restrictions are keeping punters away, decimating sales and destroying people’s incomes.

It raises the bigger question of what happens to low-paid and low-skilled workers over the next six months. And we have more than our fair share of those in the North. Many of the jobs in the hospitality sector employ those with little work experience and a low skills base. What do people with few transferable skills, or who may be working towards gaining qualifications, do in the face of this pandemic? There are no other similar jobs and retraining is difficult and takes far too long given the urgency of their current situation.

The temptation for business owners in the sector is to put everyone on zero-hours contracts or to cut hours drastically. While there is always the recourse to an employment tribunal if you think you are being treated unfairly, the backlog is so great your case may not be heard until 2026. This is leading some unscrupulous firms to do things they know would normally risk a tribunal but can get away with as things stand today.

We risk a whole generation of people who are just starting out in the world of work being thrown onto the scrap heap unless we take urgent action. We need a raft of financial packages to help those on low pay and zero-hours contracts to survive financially. And we need support for families facing slashed wages, in the form of free school meals, rent breaks and an alternative to relying on loan sharks.

Councils also need help. They have had ten years of austerity and have little fat left on their bones. I watched the standoff between the metro mayor of Manchester and the government, and I have a lot of sympathy with the position Andy Burnham finds himself in. He has a duty to protect the most financially vulnerable as well the most vulnerable to the pandemic. And, as he has been at pains to point out, these issues are going to affect every community around the country at some stage over the next few weeks. This includes London where some businesses in the hospitality trade are seeing less than 20% of their usual revenue.

It is vital that political leaders and business leaders come together to address the skills gap now to think about immediate support and to make sure that everyone has a future. I would like to see Chancellor Rishi Sunak, meeting with our regional mayors, city leaders, leaders of industry and local entrepreneurs for a future skills summit focused on the hospitality and the food and drink sectors in England.

Most of all, I would like to see our government showing a little bit of empathy and compassion. As we enter the new normal many of us are working from home and enjoying the extra access that gives us to the countryside and our families. But for each one of us in that situation, there is a young person living in a shared house in Halifax or on their own in a tiny flat in central Bradford facing reduced hours at work and a five-week wait for Universal Credit, while rent and the bills begin to mount up. We must not forget the young and those on low incomes across England, and particularly here in West Yorkshire.