Pubs should be open '24 HOURS' urges expert as hospitality industry needs desperate boost

Twenty four hour pub openings are desperately required to rejuvenate Britain’s hospitality industry, an expert has said.

Speaking to GB News, one of the country’s leading hospitality campaigners urged Brits to contact their local councillors to demand extended opening in 2023.

Alan Miller, the co-founder of the Together Association, said: “People should actually let their local councillors know that hospitality should have late night extensions. There's no reason why things should close at 11 and 12 or Midnight.

“In fact, one of the ironies of London supposedly being an open city, as the Mayor keeps saying, is that most things close by 2am. That is a scandal.

“The opposite is true, in that we are under severe pressure, through inflation and energy prices.

“We actually lost over 15,000 venues during lockdown. And many of us warned of the devastation, that lockdowns will actually do not just to hospitality, but to all small, medium sized enterprises.”

Mr Miller, who is also the founder of the Truman Brewery in east London, continued: “One thing that still has not happened in Britain is that we should be able to execute and implement something that actually came around a long time ago with the licensing act. The act said that we were allowed to have 24 hour licensing.

But no councillors seem to want to implement it. If they're serious about rejuvenating cities, towns up and down the country, that should be a key thing they look to do now.”

Almost 400 pubs closed their doors across England and Wales in 2022. With rocketing energy bills and staffing pressures, several businesses were forced to shut for the final time in 2022.

New analysis of official Government data by real estate adviser Altus group found that the overall number of pubs slid by 386 during the year.

The total number of pubs in England and Wales, including those vacant and being offered to let, fell to 39,787 in December compared with 40,173 at the same point last year.