Chris Yates, managing director, Cafe Murano
Hospitality has been treated awfully throughout 2020. The campaign for a minister for hospitality is vitally important. Property costs (rent and rates) in central London are unsustainable. This crisis and the impact on high streets should lead to revision of business rate structure and the commercial lease model. Fixed rents with five-yearly upward only reviews should be a thing of the past. During 2020 many sensible landlords have moved to turnover rents to support tenants and this has to be the model for the future of commercial leases.
Roland Horne, CEO and founder, WatchHouse coffee
All operators and landlords will likely stress the imperfection in the Business Rates regime by way of taxing the high street. These were incredibly out of kilter (in both directions not only just too expensive) and therefore the Government will need to relook at how this should be exacted going forward. Our fear borne out of the need to clear the Government debt is a slow ramping back up to the old levels will already leave a seriously wounded high street in a position of peril. The flip side is if the Government gets this right, it could foster the ability for new turnover rent only operators looking to innovate and create value in a similar way pop-ups did over the last 10 years. On the opportunities side, as an operator we are seeing a lot of great possibilities previously out of our commercial reach come to market. Landlords who are excited about their schemes and want good, clever and sustainable operators with a good offering are actively in the market. Other changes we would like to see is a safe and orderly transition from furlough into the summer of 2021 to allow operators to slowly reopen their businesses, a cliff-edge approach on the basis that the vaccine is out, the infection rates are down but crucially tourists/students and office workers still not being back will be problematic for operators and landlords alike. Therefore a graduated approach would be extremely welcomed.