"The costs are prohibitive": more than 900 British coffees disappeared in 2018 | Society

Last year, more than 900 cafes disappeared from British communities, as the industry was hit by intense cost pressures and rising prices.

A total of 914 coffees disappeared in 2018, according to the annual review of the real estate data company Altus Group, expected this week.

About 76 cafes disappeared each month during the year, although this represents a downward slump compared to 2017. The total number of coffees in England and Wales, subject to commercial pricing, was from 41,536 to 1 January 2019, which represents a decrease of 1,530 since a controversial debate. The re-evaluation came into effect in April 2017.

Kate Nicholls, Managing Director of UK Hospitality, said: "Pubs are undergoing a myriad of cost pressures in this period of unprecedented political uncertainty and unstable consumer confidence. Unless the government takes positive measures to deal with crippling costs, more and more coffee will be forced to close. "

This month, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said that increases in business rates forced viewers to lay off staff, raise prices and delay investment.

A survey of 650 licensees by the ad campaign group found that three out of four people thought the system was unfair to ads. Camra's chief executive, Tom Stainer, said: "Since the last revaluation of activity rates in 2017, it's clear that the system just does not work for citizens."

However, the rate of disappearance of ads, whether by demolition or conversion for other uses such as home or office, is drastically reduced, according to new data. In the seven years preceding the activity rates, the number of coffee shops in the United Kingdom rose from 54,674 to 43,066.

In 2017, 1,292 pubs disappeared from the high street at a rate of more than 100 pubs a month.

Altus Group President Alex Probyn said: "Increasing the thresholds at which companies, such as pubs, pay preferential rates, coupled with the reduction on ads over the last two fiscal years, has allowed to mitigate the decline. The new retail discount, which reduces by one third the rate invoices for large companies whose taxable value is below £ 51,000 as of April 1, will help independent licensees in small premises and hope to be able to stop the decline even further. "

A government spokesman said, "The big British pub has been at the heart of most communities for generations and supports thousands of jobs. We recently announced that the Hub program of our pub offered £ 188,000 and provided advice and badistance to rural pubs to help them diversify and expand their offering to customers.

"We have also reduced business rates by one-third for the majority of small businesses, including eligible pubs."