Monthly Archives: June 2020

How to reopen your restaurant, pub or hotel post-lockdown

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
UPDATED: Boris Johnson is expected to announce next week that the two-metre rule will be relaxed from July 4 and that pubs, restaurants, cafés and attractions can reopen post-lockdown.
For independent bars and eateries, the difference between the two-metre rule being enforced and one-metre social distancing is the difference between viability and the 2.8m hospitality staff currently on furlough not having a job to go back to, according to trade body UKHospitality.
The hospitality industry and the Government will also publish guidance next week as to how to reopen your restaurant, pub or hotel post-lockdown.
The guidance does however allow some flexibility rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, as seen in other business sectors.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, told the Today programme: “What we understand so far is that they are looking to reopen our businesses on July 4 with appropriate guidelines in place that will allow individual premises to undertake a detailed risk assessment and propose and put forward the control measures that they feel are necessary to keep their team and their guests safe.”
According to the draft post-lockdown hospitality sector guidance, obtained by The Times:
Pubs

Limits to the number of people allowed into pubs with markings

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Landlords blocked from evicting small businesses for another three months

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The Government has blocked commercial landlords from evicting small businesses from shops and other premises for another three months until end-September.
The U-turn will come as a huge relief for small businesses struggling to pay rent as businesses reopen post lockdown to uncertain, if non-existent, demand.
Up until yesterday, the draft voluntary code of practice being circulated made no mention of extending the original three-month moratorium on landlords repossessing premises and evicting tenants for non-payment of rent due to Covid-19.
>See also: How to ask for a commercial rent freeze from your landlord

The Government will amend the Coronavirus Act to extend the moratorium on evictions from June 30 to September 30, meaning no business will be forced out of their premises if they a miss a payment in the next three months.
Secondary legislation will prevent landlords using Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery unless they are owed 189 days of unpaid rent
The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill will be amended, extending the temporary ban on the use of statutory demands and winding-up petitions where a company cannot pay its bills due to coronavirus until September 30

However, the draft code of practice encourages tenants to continue to pay their

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