Britain loses 19 hospitality venues a week
Net closures ran at nearly 19 licensed venues a week over the past year, NIQ data shows, leaving the sector a quarter smaller than before the pandemic.
Britain lost nearly 19 licensed hospitality venues a week over the year to September, according to new data from NIQ, as the sector heads into its busiest trading period a quarter smaller than before the pandemic.
The Hospitality Market Monitor, compiled by NIQ using CGA intelligence, put net closures at 977 over the 12 months, taking the total number of licensed venues down 1.0% to 98,319. The figure covers pubs, bars, restaurants and other licensed premises across the country.
Gross churn was higher than the net number suggests. In the third quarter alone, 2,436 venues closed while 2,191 opened, often in the same premises under new operators, a pattern NIQ has tracked through recent quarters as struggling sites change hands rather than stand empty.
The venues disappearing are simply outnumbering the ones taking their place.
The sector has now shrunk by 23.4% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a contraction that has not reversed despite several years of recovery in spending on eating and drinking out.
A sector a quarter smaller than 2020
NIQ's figures land as operators prepare for the Christmas trading period, which many smaller venues rely on to cover thinner margins for the rest of the year. The scale of recent closures, including the collapse of hotel group Crazy Bear, has added to warnings that the run-up to Christmas carries unusually high stakes this year.
Casual dining and standalone restaurants have been among the hardest-hit categories in earlier readings of the same data series, which also found around 19 net closures a week in the final quarter of 2025, suggesting the rate of attrition has held steady rather than worsened over the past year.
What is driving the closures
Operators have pointed to a familiar list of pressures: higher staffing costs, rising business rates once relief schemes wind down, and energy bills that remain above pre-pandemic levels. None of those costs has eased enough on its own to reverse the trend, and the Autumn Budget's rates relief drew a muted response from trade bodies who said it addressed only part of the burden.
NIQ's data draws no single culprit, noting instead that openings have broadly kept pace with closures in volume, even as the net balance keeps tipping negative. For now, the venues disappearing are simply outnumbering the ones taking their place.
