Harrogate businesses fear uncertainty of 2021 as new lockdown threat looms

Doubts over next year's Bed Race in Knaresborough as organisers put preparations on hold

The vaccine rollout against Covid may have begun but with warnings by Boris Johnson that even tougher measures may be required as infection rates soar in the south, in particular, businesses in Harrogate find themselves facing the possibility once more of higher Tier restrictions at best or potential closure at worst.

One of Harrogate’s leading hoteliers has called on the Government to ensure that a proper and decisive route to recovery is set out this year.

Mr Cotton says what businesses need is certainty and hope for an end date to the pandemic crisis.

He said: “It was starting to feel inevitable that a third lockdown was on the cards, or increased restrictions.

“While hugely frustrating for everyone, especially in Harrogate where we feel the hard work that businesses have put in and the public have made, have shown through in the low Covid cases we have here, we have to respect the national position and also accept that it’s only a matter of time before we see numbers rising on a local level - if only due to those travelling into our lower tier area from elsewhere.

“What I would personally like to see now is the Government taking decisive and final action to give people hope that we are genuinely looking at the beginning of the end of this horrible situation we’ve been living with for nearly a year now.”

Like many business leaders in Harrogate, Mr Cotton believes it isn’t always the rules themselves which are undermining the efforts of businesses to survive these testing times - it’s the constant changing.

Mr Cotton said: “One of the biggest problems facing business owners and operators is the ever-changing rules and regulations.

“I have friends in the industry that have decided it’s best to not even open, even when they’ve been allowed to.

“If we could just have an agreed time period, with some light at the end of the tunnel on the other side, I think we could cope with that. It would allow the Government a set time period to roll out the vaccines to those most in need of it and then set out a plan to re-open and stay open.

“The start of 2021 is a time for giving hope and making plans, not the time for more uncertainty.”

Concern has risen today after Health Secretary Matt Hancock hinted that tougher restrictions may be introduced across England within 24 hours because of the pressure on the NHS from sharply rising cases of the virus.

Calls for more economic support from the Government until the vaccine rollout is completed at some point later this year are growing more widespread, even amid the relative affluence of Harrogate.

New data from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) revealed today in the national press showed that 29,684 jobs were lost across fine dining, independent businesses and large multiple casual-dining chains in 2020.

Harrogate's once vigorous independent bar and brewery scene has suffered more than most in the beleaguered hospitality sector.

Over three hundred small independent breweries have now signed a letter by the Society of Independent Brewers to the Prime Minister, calling on him to commit to proper support for the sector which has been decimated by Covid lockdown in 2020.

Small breweries have faced harsh restrictions on their businesses over the last year and saw sales plummet by an average of 80% during lockdown, but have not received much of the support given to the wider hospitality sector.

To make matters worse for struggling businesses the Government is planning a tax increase for brewers with their changes to Small Breweries’ Relief (SBR) – the scheme that revolutionised brewing in the UK and made it viable for small businesses to compete against the Global beer companies.

Ian Fozard, the national chairman of SIBA and owner of Harrogate's award-winning Rooster's Brewing Co, has questioned why independent brewers have been singled out consistently in recent months with a severe impact, in particular, on wet-ed pubs and bars that cannot serve meals.

Mr Fozard said: "For smaller pubs and breweries to survive Government enforced closure of large parts of the hospitality sector - they will need proper compensation.

"It beggars belief that supermarkets, who are generally perceived to have benefited from the COVID crisis should receive over a billion pounds in Business Rates relief, yet independent breweries, for example, who have been hard hit, have not received any specific help at all.

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