ONS has produced new regional data on the impact of restrictions on businesses up until the beginning of Step 3. The data, as usual, shows that tourism/hospitality is the most impacted sector of the economy but there are marked regional differences. For example, the East Midlands had 79% of hospitality businesses operating between 4-16 May, while only 24% of hospitality businesses in the West Midlands were operating during this period. On a UK-wide basis, 66% of hospitality businesses were operating compared with 83% of all businesses.
Similarly, 68% of hospitality businesses report a decline in revenue, which is twice the percentage of UK businesses as a whole (34%) that report a decrease in turnover. These are regional variations within these figures as well, with only 56% of hospitality businesses in the South West reporting a decline in revenue compared to 72% in the South East.
Read the ONS article here.