UK hospitality closures hit 19 venues a week
NIQ's latest Hospitality Market Monitor shows licensed premises down 1% over the year, with casual dining down nearly a quarter since 2020.
UK hospitality closures have averaged 19 licensed venues a week over the year to September 2026, according to the NIQ Hospitality Market Monitor, as costs keep outrunning sales growth across pubs, bars and restaurants.
Licensed premises fell 1% over the year to 98,319, a net loss of 977 sites. The pace has not let up: numbers were down a further 0.2%, or 245 sites, in the three months to September alone. NIQ tracks licensed premises across England, Scotland and Wales, covering pubs, bars, restaurants and other venues that hold a drinks licence, rather than the wider catering sector.
UK hospitality closures reach 19 a week
It's the pile-up of challenges facing hospitality.
In that same quarter, 2,436 venues closed, roughly 27 a day, against 2,191 openings, often in premises vacated by a previous operator. The gap between the two is narrow enough to complicate a simple reading of decline: for nearly every site that shuts, another reopens under new management, just not quite enough to hold the total steady.
Casual dining absorbs the pressure
Casual dining has been hit hardest, down 2.2% year-on-year and 23.4% since the pandemic began in 2020. Licensed hotels and holiday and caravan parks, by contrast, both grew, up 0.2% and 0.7% respectively, a split that suggests the squeeze is falling unevenly across the sector rather than across hospitality as a whole.
NIQ's companion RSM Business Tracker shows managed groups growing below inflation for 16 consecutive months, and a Business Confidence Survey run with Zonal found only 37% of hospitality leaders optimistic about the next 12 months.
"It's the pile-up of challenges facing hospitality," said Karl Chessell, NIQ's director of hospitality operators and food for EMEA, calling for "meaningful support" on costs and warning the sector is "entering a critical couple of months."
The figures land weeks after London restaurant openings hit a 10-year high, a reminder that national averages can mask sharply different local pictures: London keeps adding venues even as the wider UK trend runs the other way.
