Nightclubs on the brink

A survey by the Night Time Industries Association has shown that well over half of all late night venues estimate that they will be unable to last longer than two months before being forced to close their doors permanently.

This could result in the potential loss of over 750,000 jobs and devastating knock-on effects to the night time economies of many towns and cities including Brighton. The industry employs 1.3 million people in the UK and contributes an estimated 66bn to the economy but many venues are expecting to start making redundancies in the next two weeks.

Peter Marks, the chief executive of Deltic Group - one of the major players with 54 venues - has criticised the government for its lack of support and absence of a roadmap for reopening of night clubs. It is widely assumed across the industry that such venues will be the very last to open due to the problems of ensuring safe distancing.

For many late night venues, possibly even the majority, a Covid 19 vaccine may come to late to save them.