Wetherspoon chairman calls on the Government to reopen Hemel and Berkhamsted pubs at the same time as non-essential shops

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin is calling on the Government to open pubs - including his own in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted - at the same time as non-essential shops reopen.

He says that the pub industry is “on its knees” and that pubs across the UK - including Wetherspoon's The Full House in Hemel Hempstead and The Crown in Berkhamsted - need to reopen in order to save the industry and associated jobs.

Mr Martin says the pub industry makes a massive contribution to the economy, with Wetherspoon alone paying about ten pounds of tax for every pound of profit it makes.

He said: “In the last ten years Wetherspoon has generated £6.1 billion of taxes, something we are very proud of.

“In the financial year to July 2019, before the pandemic, Wetherspoon, its customers and employees generated £764 million of taxes, one pound in every thousand collected by the UK government.

“The amount of tax paid by Wetherspoon is replicated, according to the size of the company, throughout the pub industry, and shows just how important pubs are to the economy.”

In March last year, Mr Martin came under attack after failing to reassure Wetherspoon staff the company would pay their wages once pubs shut, instead encouraging them to find work in supermarkets or await details of the government's furlough scheme.

After a barrage of criticism, the pub company was forced into a U-turn and agreed to pay 80% wages for its 43,000 work force.

Mr Martin continued: “Many people have correctly pointed out that the three lockdowns of the last year have been a disaster for the hospitality, retail, arts and entertainment industries, but our calculations show that they have been an even bigger disaster for public finances.

“The taxes paid by Wetherspoon are mirrored by thousands of companies which have been annihilated by lockdowns.

“As a result, government finances have been annihilated even more.

“Since pubs reopened last summer, following the first lockdown, Wetherspoon has registered more than 50 million customer visits to its pubs, using the test and trace system, without a single outbreak of Covid-19, as defined by the health authorities, among customers in our pubs.

“Industry organisations UK Hospitality and the BBPA have provided the government with information that clearly demonstrates that pubs and restaurants are Covid- secure environments, following the investment of hundreds of millions of pounds in safety and hygiene measures.

“The government knows this is correct, since it has access to test and trace information.

“As the BBPA has pointed out, outbreaks have been concentrated in environments such as care homes, households and hospitals.

“Yet the government has ignored this information and has even banned golf – the ultimate social distancing sport.

“Surely it is possible for the hospitality industry to reopen at the same time as non-essential shops, now that a vaccine exists, on the basis of the social distancing and hygiene regulations, which were agreed with the health authorities, after full consultation, for the July 4 reopening last year.

“Unless the industry does reopen on that basis, economic mayhem will inevitably follow.”

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