More Than a Third of UK Restaurants Could Close by Early 2023

Be our guest—at the unemployment bureau. Restaurants are failing faster in the United Kingdom than they did during the economically devastating COVID-19 pandemic, leading experts to predict over a third of UK “hospitality businesses” will close by 2023. I guess inflation wasn’t transitory there either.

The Guardian blamed a “‘toxic mix’ of surging energy costs, staff shortages and falling bookings” for the crisis, as restaurant closures rose 60% this past year. 

And it’s not just restaurants affected, according to Steve Bannon, who posted on GETTR that “50% of all British small business said they would in all likelihood close shop after the holidays— in first or second Quarter of ‘23.” Food and energy costs have gone up with inflation, which also reduced people’s disposable income, putting many restaurants and other businesses at risk of imminent closure.