Portsmouth nightclub chain Pryzm leads calls for venues to be able to reopen
CITY nightclub Pryzm is leading calls from night-time industry operators to stop the ‘collapse’ of the sector by allowing venues to reopen.
The club owner, along with other night leisure sector bosses, have put forward a range of what they believe are Covid-secure measures to enable nightclubs to reopen.
Peter Marks, chief executive officer at The Deltic Group, the UK’s largest operator of late night bars and clubs, and owner of Pryzm, said: ‘The late night leisure sector, a sector which employs tens of thousands across the UK, is at risk of collapse if the government does not act now - it is that simple.
‘We need a clear reopening plan, or at the very least fit-for-purpose financial assistance.’
The need for ‘urgent action’ has been heightened with the government’s furlough scheme set to come to an end in October.
Measures proposed include temperature checks, sophisticated ventilation systems, crowd control, increased open space and high intensity cleaning regimes. The group say the proposals have been backed by the Institute of Occupational Medicine.
A survey conducted by the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) showed that 58 per cent of businesses within the night-time economy fear they will not survive longer than two months without further government support. This would put an estimated 754,000 jobs at risk.
Responses revealed that 71 per cent of night sector businesses are already set to make more than half of their workforce redundant ‘in a matter of weeks’.
Michael Kill, chief executive of NTIA said: ‘These results feel like the final catastrophic blow to the night-time economy, which employs 1.3 million people in the UK and contributes £66bn to the UK economy per year.
‘Near enough every single business is on a dangerous cliff edge. This is the darkest of days for the night-time economy.’