Forty pubs lost in one year in London – but jobs are growing

London went from 3,575 pubs in March 2022 to 3,535 a year later, reports Noah Vickers, local Democracy Reporter

London suffered a net loss of around 40 pubs and bars last year, while hiring a record number of staff in the sector, new figures show.

The 0.7% fall in the number of pubs in the capital, despite a 4.3% increase in employees, is explained by the disappearance of smaller pubs and the growth of larger ones.

City Hall Conservatives said the overall decline in pub numbers proved there had been “no progress” from Sadiq Khan or his night czar Amy Lamé in improving London’s night-time economy, but the Mayor’s team argued that pub have faced “huge challenges”. because of the “increased costs of living and doing business under the previous government”.

According to ONS data analyzed by City Hall economists, London went from 3,575 pubs in March 2022 to 3,535 a year later. In 2001, the figure was 4,835.

However, London also increased its pub workforce from an average of around 47,000 in 2022 to 49,000 last year – the highest since records began in 2001, when there were 42,000 people in the sector .

This is due to the continued growth of larger pubs, defined as those with ten or more staff. They accounted for less than a third of all London pubs in 2001, but this share had risen to just over half last year.

Barnet had 80 pubs in March 2023 and although the borough did not see a fall on the previous year, there was also a 41% fall in the number of pubs in Barnet since 2001 when there were 135 .

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, said: “It is disappointing and frustrating that we continue to see bar closures across the country.

“This level of closures is the result of skyrocketing costs that are putting business owners under considerable pressure. It is vital that we see urgent action to reduce these operating costs to a more manageable level to help our historic pub industry not just survive but thrive.

“It is vitally important that the new government delivers on its manifest commitment to fix the damaged business rates system, which will help not just pubs but the hospitality industry as a whole to bounce back.”

The decline in pub numbers was not felt evenly across the capital – with 13 boroughs seeing an increase in their number of pubs, another 13 seeing a decrease and the remaining seven remaining roughly flat.

The biggest fall was in the City of London “square mile”, where the number of pubs fell by 15 to 145, while the biggest increase was in Bexley, where numbers rose by 15 to 100.

The estimated London-wide net fall of 40 pubs is the biggest since Khan’s first year in office, when there was a year-on-year drop of 85 pubs in the capital between 2016 and 2017.

Emma Best, deputy leader of the Conservatives at City Hall, said that “given the significant decline in nightlife in our city”, the latest figures “will come as absolutely no surprise to most Londoners”.

She added: “In the absence of any progress on this from the mayor, his night czar or his deputy mayor for culture, I am bringing representatives from the nightlife sector to a round table in City Hall. Together we will discuss how we can best support the sector to thrive, helping the industry’s many businesses and the wider London economy.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor said: “Pubs are an important part of London’s communities but have faced huge challenges in recent years due to the devastating effects of the pandemic, rising rents and business rates, shortages of staff and the increased costs of living and working. business under the previous government.

“We have done everything we can to support the capital’s hospitality industry, including protecting pubs from being turned into flats or demolished under the London Plan, working with boroughs to facilitate licensing and advising venues.

“London’s pubs employ more people than at any time in the last 20 years, but there is more to do to protect them. We look forward to working hand in hand with the new government, councils and places to continue to support them through these challenges.”

Looking at the total number of pubs per borough in March 2023, Westminster topped the chart with 435 operating locations, followed by Camden with 235 and Islington with 225.

At the other end of the scale is Barking and Dagenham, which, despite its population of 219,000, had only 15 establishments that fit the definition of public house or bar used in the data.

Second lowest was neighboring Redbridge with 45 pubs, followed by Harrow, Newham, Sutton and Waltham Forest – each with around 50.

The same ONS data shows that across the UK, including London, there was a net loss of 50 pubs in total, suggesting that London accounted for around 80% of the country’s net closures year-on-year. But the City Hall pointed to other sources of data which suggested the capital lost only a relatively small proportion of pubs lost in the UK.

For example, they said an analysis by the Night Time Industries Association of CGA Nielsen data showed that the number of UK pubs fell from 36,141 in December 2022 to 35,463 in December 2023 – a loss of 678 pubs hours, or 1.9%, this year. London-specific figures show a fall from 2,852 to 2,832 pubs over the same period, a loss of 20 pubs, or 0.7%.

Different national figures are also quoted by the British Beer and Pubs Association and the Campaign for Real Ale, with variation due to the use of different definitions, methodologies and timelines.

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