Burnley Hospitality Hell: Crow Wood owner believes delayed re-opening would be 'devastating' for country

Mr Brown, who runs three restaurants on his Crow Wood Hotel and Spa Resort site, said businesses could not continue operating on a stop-stop basis, and want assurances that this lockdown will not be followed by another.

Family restaurant the Lounge opened alongside the leisure club in 2001. It was followed by Bertram's in 2013, and then Wilfred's – the hotel's restaurant and bar – in 2019.

Hospitality is just one sector that has been "totally flattened" by the pandemic according to Mr Brown, who believes delaying the re-opening of businesses past mid-March would have devastating consequences.

Here are his views:

What do you miss most about being open?

It is literally heartbreaking to see the place every day empty, it is normally extremely busy and all our staff miss the customers, many of which treat us like their second home.

Do you think the hospitality sector has been unfairly treated?

Personally, I have mood swings when I think we should just get on with it and get back to normal and other times when I think the Government has no choice.

Hospitality is just one sector than has been totally flattened, you can add in airlines, airports, rail, bus, theatre, cinema, bowling alleys, retail, gyms, and I am sure many others.

I have no problem with being forced to close, however the financial support is a joke.

Even during furlough, we must pay our employment taxes, for us that’s £75,000 per month and then “Nest”, the Government pension scheme is another £13,000 per month. Insurance £8,500, energy £20,000, site security, maintenance, licences, and a host of other costs.

How much longer can the industry - and specifically your business - survive lockdown?

We have a very robust business model and importantly the full confidence of our bankers.

We borrowed £1.4 million from the Government; interest free for 12 months. That is up in June and we have to repay £27,000 per month over five years and it starts accruing interest.

We still have substantial cash reserves and our bankers have said more is available if needed.

As things stand, we have to start paying rates in April which is £40,000 per month.

Our total grants from Government since this started are probably less than £40,000

What is your message to the Government?

The Government needs to immediately signal that the rate holiday is to continue for another 12 months

That the VAT rate for hospitality will remain at 5% for the next two years.

That the offer of a £1,000 retention bonus per employee which was to be paid in January is re-instated.

We employ over 290 people, so far, we have made two redundancies, we do not want to let any more our staff go as we have an excellent team.

The majority of our team are paid relatively low salaries, many struggle to get by on 100% of their normal salary, to survive on 80% is not realistic.

The Government has understandably made a lot of mistakes, delaying the re-opening of things past mid-March will cause more devastation to the sectors above, mental health, delayed operations and screening, children's education and prospects for all those leaving education, to name a few.

Will Burnley bounce back stronger?

That is wishful thinking.

For industries like ours, for those that survive there will be a “honeymoon” period, but that will not last long. If unemployment is not checked then that will sap consumer confidence and in turn spending.

For East Lancashire the effect on aerospace is the most worrying aspect. This industry needs a scrappage scheme for old UK registered aircraft and as soon as the vulnerable are vaccinated and protected the airports need to be reopened and foreign travel restarted.

Business cannot operate on a stop-start basis, clarity on a re-opening date is vital and assurances that we will not enter another lockdown paramount. The events industry is sometimes planning two years in advance, it also employs huge numbers of people.

Covid will be with us forever, if there was not a vaccine available, what would have been the Government's strategy?

Keep hotels, restaurants, airports, gyms, retail closed forever more? It is just not realistic.

I fully understand that the virus is killing people, the NHS has and is doing a fantastic job, but if we are not careful the collateral damage is going to be far worse than the disease.

Thankfully, I don’t have to make the decisions, for which I am sure the British public are most grateful.