Colliers | Comments from Colliers International on the impact of Government's new 'rule of six' on the hospitality and leisure industry

James Shorthouse, Head of Alternative Markets at Colliers International said: “With today’s enforcement of the Government’s new ‘rule of six’, it’s important to examine how these measures, which have been implemented to combat the sharp rise in COVID-19 infection rates, will have an impact on the hospitality and leisure industry.

“Hospitality premises can be configured to conform to the maximum six persons rule by correct layout of tables, limiting the numbers of seats at a table and allocating customers to specified tables.

“The Hospitality sector clearly wants to avoid a second spike, and a consistent set of rules are important so that customers, owners and staff understand what is allowed. Naturally we want to get back to a situation without restrictions as soon as possible but the sector has already demonstrated its commitment to operating in a responsible manner, adhering to the rules and ensuring that the trading environment does not increase the risk of spreading the virus.

“Any increase in regulation brings additional costs to businesses, so it is really important that the rule of six is kept under review and that it is relaxed as and when it is safe to do so.

“Successful implementation of this rule will require cooperation between operators and the police / local authorities and it is vital that adequate funding is put in place to pay for the additional enforcement officers.”

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James Shorthouse

Head of Alternative Markets

Licensed and Leisure

London - West End

+44 20 7487 1670

+44 7917 260054

James is one of the UK's leading advisers in Pub, Bar, Restaurant and Leisure sectors. He has worked in the sector for over 30 years, a period during which the sector has undergone enormous changes in its operational, ownership and regulatory structures.

Acting on behalf of major operators, investors and banks on portfolios and high value single assets, James' operator clients include Greene King, Ei group, Casual Dining Group, and Novus. On the investor side, for many years he advised Nomura and Terra Firma, worked closely with Cerberus on all of its leisure sector investments and has recently advised Patron Capital, Stellex and NewRiver.

Within Colliers International, James heads up the UK Licensed & Leisure team and also runs the businesses Alternative Markets Division which encompasses Hotels, Automotive, Healthcare, and other specialist Leisure teams.

Throughout his career James has advised major UK and International lenders, both on new lending and on developing and executing exit strategies for distressed lending positions. His team have worked with a number of F&B operators to rationalise their portfolios and have advised landlords on how to preserve value and retain tenants in difficult times.

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Hannah Zitren

Associate Director

Marketing & Communications

Manchester

+44 20 7344 6739

I am responsible for media relations and generating coverage in top tier broadcast and print media. I work across a range of Colliers’ UK & Pan-EMEA business lines advising on their strategic and tactical PR needs.

My role includes:

· Developing and executing PR plans for the various business lines to help promote their key messages across all aspects of the media - print, broadcast and social.

· Media evaluation and reporting objectives, targets and successes across the business.

· Reputation management and crisis management.

· Media training.

· Media engagement: setting up meetings with top tier media and various internal spokespeople to continuously expand and build a presence with property and vertical media network.

· Consistently delivering service excellence, meeting with business heads of a regular basis and trying to influence the research as much as possible to ensure our content has a strong enough news hook.

· Key campaigns that I work on include MIPIM; MAPIC; REVO; Midsummer Retail Report; IHIF; Cities of Influence in addition to a host of all alternative property sector research reports.

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