Cheers as Yorkshire’s hospitality industry 
bounces back strongly

Just 17 per cent of hotels and 27 per cent of restaurants in Yorkshire and the Humber had a higher than normal risk of insolvency in December.

Yorkshire and the North West were among the best performing regions and were only beaten by London, where hotels reported a 16 per cent risk. The Midlands was the weakest region with hotels reporting a 23 per cent risk.

The restaurant sector in Yorkshire also performed relatively well with the percentage of businesses considered to be at higher than normal risk seeing a slight fall of 0.3 per cent from the previous month. Levels were below the national UK average of 30 per cent.

Levels of business distress among Yorkshire’s pubs are in line with the UK average, with 26 per cent considered to be at higher than normal risk of insolvency.

William Ballmann, chair of R3 in Yorkshire and partner at Gateley LLP, said: “It is encouraging to see the hospitality sector in Yorkshire continuing to recover as consumers have more money in their pockets and feel more confident about spending.

“This has been further boosted by our hosting of the Tour de France which has already delivered huge benefits to local hotels and restaurants and is expected to continue to attract more visitors to the regions over the coming years.”

He said that January was traditionally the most difficult time for the hospitality sector with insolvencies spiking, but a strong Christmas should provide a buffer.