Greater Manchester Mayor warns hospitality sector faces collapse
The leaders of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds have written a letter to the health and business secretaries.
In a letter to the Health Secretary and the Business Secretary, the leaders and chief executives of the three city councils said coronavirus restrictions in place in the regions were threatening a "huge, disproportionate'' economic impact.
In the letter, they said:
"The stark reality is that these businesses are facing the prospect of a complete decimation in trade, not just in the short term but as we look ahead to the sector's traditional lifeblood of the Christmas period and almost certainly continuing into spring/summer of next year which we know with certainty will result in mass market failure, huge levels of redundancies and depleted and boarded up high streets.''
Local restrictions in the cities mean people are advised not to mix with other households, but the council leaders have described that as"unenforceable'' as well as being "contradictory and confusing''.
They called on the ministers to make the advice law, and compensate businesses with a package of support, or allow mixing within the "rule of six'' in controlled environments.
The city leaders also called for the Government to review the 10pm curfew.
On Monday, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham warned it could be doing "more harm than good''.
He said the early closing time had caused there to be a rush to off-licences, creating an incentive for people to gather in each other's homes.
The Labour mayor suggested one option to deal with the problem could be to impose a 9pm curfew on alcohol sales in shops to prevent the rush to off-licences after the pubs close.
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