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16
Mar 2020
Harrogate's hotels reel as PM tells the public to avoid social venues
Managers of the district's larger hotels demand financial help as Boris Johnson tells the UK to "avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and social venues"
An empty Rudding Park restaurant.
Larger hotel and restaurant owners in Harrogate have called on the government to provide financial support after the government today asked the public to avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and social venues.
Rudding Park and Spa in Harrogate, one of the towns largest hotels, has 90 bed rooms. Peter Banks Rudding's Managing Director demanded clarity from the government:
“What help are the government going to provide? Are they going to allow us to stop paying PAYE, VAT, Corporation Tax and rates and what further liquidity are they going to give to banks to allow them to keep us going? More importantly, how quickly is this going to happen? Anyone in a leasehold or rented property will need to be paying their mortgage, rent and bills at the end of the month – where is that money coming from? From a hospitality industry perspective, at Rudding Park we are lucky, we are large enough to ‘ride’ it but I certainly wouldn’t want to be running a smaller business in this environment.”
Simon Cotton, the managing director at the HRH Group, which owns the White Hart Hotel, the Yorkshire Hotel, and The Fat Badger pub said:
I am worried about the long-term sustainability of the business if we don't have any customers coming through our doors. The government has suspended business rates for smaller places but I think we need to look at some relief for bigger businesses as well. The government has not shut us down so I think it's still okay for fit and healthy people who are not at risk to still go out for food and drink."
Ekrem Babat, the owner of Uno Momento an Italian restaurant in Ripon told The Stray Ferret:
"My biggest worry is about the staff, we have over 200 people employed across our restaurants. We are going to stay open for now but if people don't come to the restaurant we are going to have to think about that. Our staff have partners and children who rely on them to bring home a wage but we can only pay them if the customers come to eat. "
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