Cllr Joanna Biddolph has asked leader of the council Cllr Shantanu Rajawat to extend the £100 pavement licence for outside tables and chairs for another year to September 2024 to support local cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants as they rebuild their businesses after the pandemic - and to encourage residents, workers and visitors to support these businesses by eating and drinking out.
The Fast Track Pavement Licence was introduced by the government during the pandemic to enable people to eat out and support businesses while reducing the spread of Covid-19. The £100 fee covered the fee for having outside tables, chairs, counters, stalls, umbrellas and other items that support eating and drinking outdoors. The government extended this licence for a second year, until September 2023. Cllr Biddolph argues that hospitality businesses throughout the borough - including in Chiswick - still need support to recover from the pandemic, and residents and visitors need to be encouraged to support these businesses by eating and dining out.
Cllr Biddolph explained that before the government introduced the £100 licence, one Chiswick cafe paid £1,100 a year for outdoor tables and chairs in a modest outside space. Some cafes/restaurants will have paid much more for larger spaces. This is hard to sustain in the current retail/hospitality climate.
One Chiswick cafe/restaurant owner said, "We still have many fewer customers than before the pandemic and need to attract them back. There is much more competition now and having outdoor seating to attract customers is crucial. It increases the chances that customers will stop to eat here, rather than walk on to find outdoor seating somewhere else. I hope the council will agree to keep the £100 fee for another year to help us rebuild our business and contribute to the Chiswick outdoor dining culture".
"Eating and drinking outside is part of our local culture," said Cllr Biddolph, who founded the Chiswick Shops Task Force specifically to support local businesses and is the Conservative group's retail spokesman. "Yet the cost to businesses wanting to provide residents and visitors with outside tables and chairs will be prohibitively high with fewer people shopping and eating out. The government recognised this and brought in the £100 licence to encourage outdoor dining during the pandemic. The government then extended it for another year; it ends this September. I know that continuing with the £100 fee for another year will be very warmly welcomed by owners of cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants as they try to balance rising costs with keeping their prices affordable."
The request came coincidentally on the day that chain coffee shop Le Pain Quotidien announced it would be restructuring its business having closed all but one of its cafes. Its CEO, restructuring advisor Kroll, and the managing director of the parent company have all emphasised the very tricky hospitality climate in London.
CEO Annick Van Overstraeten told MailOnline, "London has become a very difficult market: fewer people on the streets, higher wage costs, and a very rigid rental market, whereby rent takes up to 30 per cent of our budget. That is not sustainable, especially with the growth opportunities we see elsewhere."
Sarah Rayment, global co-head of restructuring at Kroll, said, "London has suffered from reduced revenues as a result of decreased footfall in the capital, high rents and increased wage costs."
Managing Director of insolvency specialists, Forbes Burton, Rick Smith, told MailOnline, "Unfortunately, Le Pain Quotidien are another victim of the perfect storm of a drop in customers on the high street as footfall has decreased significantly and high rents and wage increases to keep pace with rocketing inflation have increased too".
Cllr Biddolph hopes council leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat will be sympathetic to hospitality businesses across the borough and extend the £100 licence for another year.
ENDS
- Cllr Biddolph's email to council leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat is below in full.
- The statements quoted above are taken from this article: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12261949/High-Street-bakery-chain-Le-Pain-Quotidien-closes-branches-except-ONE.html
- This catering industry article also publishes a similar story: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/le-pain-quotidien-administration-london-st-pancras-stores-closed-b1091982.html
From: Councillor Joanna Biddolph <[email protected]>
Sent: 04 July 2023 23:31
To: Councillor Shantanu Rajawat <[email protected]>
Subject: Hospitality pavement licences - please extend the £100 licence to help businesses recover from the pandemic
Dear Shantanu,
Last year, the government extended its boost for business during Covid by extending the £100 Fast Track Pavement Licence for another year. It runs out at the end of September this year. (https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20194/street_trading_and_market_trading/2199/fast_track_pavement_licence)
This is to ask you to maintain this £100 fee for a pavement licence for hospitality businesses across the borough for another year.
Businesses, especially hospitality businesses, are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. People are eating out less generally and this is having a significant detrimental effect on the borough's hospitality businesses and its night-time economy. We need to encourage more dining out and more outdoor dining. Of course, we must be sensitive during the cost-of-living crisis but this works two ways: to encourage people with disposable income to eat out, and to support businesses facing rising costs for ingredients, utilities and staffing.
This need has been emphasised today by the announcement that Le Pain Quotidien has closed all but one of its branches because, as its CEO says, "London has become a very difficult market: fewer people on the streets, higher wage costs, and a very rigid rental market, whereby rent takes up to 30 per cent of our budget. That is not sustainable, especially with the growth opportunities we see elsewhere". (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12261949/High-Street-bakery-chain-Le-Pain-Quotidien-closes-branches-except-ONE.html)
The firm's restructuring adviser Kroll says, in The Caterer: the company "which is predominantly located in London has suffered from reduced revenues as a result of decreased footfall in the capital, high rents and increased wage costs." (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/le-pain-quotidien-administration-london-st-pancras-stores-closed-b1091982.html)
And the managing director of insolvency specialists, Forbes Burton, Rick Smith says: "Unfortunately, Le Pain Quotidien are another victim of the perfect storm of a drop in customers on the high street as footfall has decreased significantly and high rents and wage increases to keep pace with rocketing inflation have increased too". (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12261949/High-Street-bakery-chain-Le-Pain-Quotidien-closes-branches-except-ONE.html)
Outside tables and chairs are important for three principle reasons: they enable visible marketing to customers as they pass by; they allow customers to sit outside in good weather, a considerable attraction and very much part of the borough's dining out scene; and they increase the number of seats for customers. Until the pandemic, eating out and eating outside were significant aspects of the borough's and Chiswick's culture.
Meanwhile, the cost of standard licences is very high for businesses who are struggling to build back their pre-pandemic custom. They need help with increasing their chances of attracting customers.
We need to encourage residents and visitors with disposable income to get out more, by eating out more at cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants. And we need to help businesses to attract those customers by enabling them to have outside tables and chairs at an affordable cost.
Before the government introduced the £100 licence, one Chiswick cafe paid £1,100 a year. Some cafes/restaurants will have paid much more for larger spaces. This is hard to sustain in the current retail/hospitality climate.
This fast track licence does not include A-boards and the council has recently employed Kingdom to sweep through the borough fining businesses, without warning, for displaying A-boards and encouraging them to apply. Those businesses did not realise that A-boards were not included in the Fast Track Pavement Licence and have, of course and inevitably, applied. The council has, therefore, benefited from fines from traders wishing to continue to display A-boards and will continue to benefit from fees for displaying A-boards during the extra year of £100 licence.
I know hospitality business owners across the borough will greatly appreciate being able to keep costs down by having another year paying £100 for a pavement licence to last until September 2024. Chiswick hospitality businesses will also appreciate a reduction in costs. I very much hope you will agree to this modest and pragmatic request.
Jo
