London suffered a net loss of around 40 pubs and bars last year, while at the same time employing a record high number of staff in the sector, new data reveals.
The 0.7 per cent fall in the number of pubs in the capital, despite a 4.3 per cent rise in employees, is explained by the demise of smaller pubs and the rise of larger ones.
City Hall Conservatives said the overall drop in pub numbers proved that there had not been “any progress” from Sadiq Khan or his Night Czar Amy Lamé in improving London’s night-time economy, but the mayor’s team argued that pubs have faced “huge challenges” due to “the increased costs of living and doing business under the previous Government”.
According to ONS data analysed by economists at City Hall, London went from 3,575 pubs in March 2022, to 3,535 a year later. Back in 2001, the figure stood at 4,835.
However, London also grew its number of pub employees from an average of around 47,000 in 2022 to reach 49,000 last year - the highest since records began in 2001, when there were 42,000 people in the sector.
This is due to the continual growth of larger pubs, defined as those with 10 or more staff members. They accounted for less than a third of all London pubs in 2001, but that share had grown to just over half last year.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality, said: “It’s disappointing and frustrating that we’re continuing to see pub closures across the country.
“This level of closures is the result of sky-high costs that are putting business owners under considerable pressure. It’s vital that we see urgent action to bring these operating costs down to a more manageable level, in order to help our historic pub industry not just survive, but thrive.
“It is particularly important that the new Government delivers on its manifesto commitment to fix the broken business rates system, which will help not just pubs, but the wider hospitality industry, bounce back.”
The drop in pub numbers was not felt uniformly across the capital - with 13 boroughs seeing an increase in their number of pubs, another 13 seeing a decrease and the remaining seven remaining roughly stable.
The largest decrease was in the ‘square mile’ of the City of London, where pub numbers fell by 15 to 145, while the largest increase was in Bexley, where numbers rose by 15 to 100.
The estimated net London-wide decrease of 40 pubs is the largest since Mr Khan’s first year of office, when there was a year-on-year fall of 85 pubs in the capital between 2016 and 2017.
Emma Best, deputy leader of City Hall Conservatives, said that “given the significant decline in our city’s nightlife”, the latest figures “will be absolutely no surprise to most Londoners”.
She added: “In the absence of any progress on this whatsoever from the Mayor, his Night Czar or his Deputy Mayor for Culture, I am bringing together representatives from across the nightlife sector at a roundtable in City Hall. Together we will discuss how we can best support the sector to thrive, helping the industry’s many businesses and the wider London economy.”
A spokeswoman for the mayor said: “Pubs are an important part of London’s communities but they have faced huge challenges in recent years due to the devastating effects of the pandemic, rising rents and business rates, staff shortages and the increased costs of living and doing business under the previous Government.
“We have been doing all we can to support the capital’s hospitality industry, including protecting pubs from being turned into flats or demolished in the London Plan, working with boroughs to make licensing easier and providing advice to venues.
“More people are employed across London’s pubs than at any point in the last 20 years, but there is still much more to do to protect them. We are looking forward to working hand-in-hand with the new Government, councils and venues to support them further through these challenges.”
Looking at the total number of pubs by borough in March 2023, Westminster topped the chart with 435 operating venues, followed by Camden with 235 and Islington with 225.
At the other end of the scale is Barking and Dagenham, which despite its population of 219,000 people, had only 15 establishments which fitted the definition of public house or bar used in the data.
Occupying the second-lowest position was neighbouring Redbridge with 45 pubs, followed by Harrow, Newham, Sutton and Waltham Forest - each of which had about 50.
The same ONS data shows that across the UK, including London, there was a net loss of 50 pubs overall, suggesting that London accounted for around 80 per cent of the country’s net closures year-on-year. The mayor’s office pointed to other data sources however which suggest that the capital only lost a relatively small proportion of the pubs lost across the UK.
For example, they said that a Night Time Industries Association analysis of CGA Nielsen data showed that pub numbers in Great Britain fell from 36,141 in December 2022 to 35,463 in December 2023 - a loss of 678 pubs, or 1.9 per cent, in the year. The London-specific data shows a fall from 2,852 to 2,832 pubs in the same period, amounting to a loss of 20 pubs, or 0.7 per cent.
Different national figures are also cited by the the British Beer and Pubs Association and by the Campaign for Real Ale, with the variation due to the use of differing definitions, methodologies, and timelines.
