We need to ease the struggle of bricks-and-mortar businesses – not pile on more taxes

Even before the pandemic, many of the UK’s small businesses, pubs, shops and restaurants were dying a slow death. If we’re serious about saving jobs, it’s time Johnson and Sunak scrapped business rates and made things easier, writes Chris Blackhurst

What next for pubs and restaurants now that Rishi Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme has ended? (PA)

According to Westminster chat, when the business secretary, Alok Sharma, told Boris Johnson in lockdown that 3 million jobs could be lost if the hospitality sector was not able to resume trading in time for the summer, the prime minister is said to have replied, “Christ.”

Johnson had no idea, apparently, that so many people worked in pubs and restaurants. Their trade had been frozen during lockdown and they needed to reopen their doors, and fast.

The government eased the restrictions and also introduced the discount scheme to encourage diners to eat out again, and it has been a roaring success. That initiative has now ended, and the industry is heading back to where it was.