Thanks to the overwhelming success of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, some restaurants have agreed to extend it into September.
The government-funded scheme which facilitates a 50 per cent off discount up to a maximum of £10 per head was rolled out in August in a bid to boost the nation’s dwindling economy.
Following the UK’s intensive national lockdown, the hospitality injury suffered massively with job cuts, redundancies and chain closures rife at a scale not seen for generations.
The Eat Out To Help Out scheme got customers back into restaurants, cafes and bars in massive numbers – with the discount being used 64 million times during the first three weeks of August.
Now with the scheme set to end, several restaurants have announced that they will be keeping the discounts in place but will fund the loss themselves.
Among those agreeing to keep the discounted food flowing are Bill’s, Prezzo, Pizza Hut, Comptoir, Roka, Peggy Porschen, Thomas Cubbit, Harvester, TGI Fridays, Toby Carvery, Boxpark, Sophie’s, Hall and Woodhouse, The Coconut Tree, Cityglen Pubs and the Q Hotels Group.
Deliveroo will also be offering special deals throughout the month of September.
In a statement, the chancellor Rishi Sunak said, “This has been an incredibly difficult time for the hospitality sector, both during the lockdown and emerging from it. Thousands of restaurants and cafes forced to close during lockdown were thankfully able to continue trading in some way using delivery services such as Deliveroo.”