The latest Hospitality Market Monitor from NIQ has revealed the number of licensed premises in the UK fell by 0.4 percent in the last three months of 2025, following “relentless inflation for businesses in key cost areas, alongside fragile consumer confidence about spending.”
Retail and hospitality data analyst NIQ has revealed that licensed premises fell by 0.4 percent over the last three months of 2025, with 382 sites closing between September and the end of December.
Figures from the latest Hospitality Market Monitor represent “an abrupt end to a resilient year” for the sector, which had witnessed growth of 0.2 percent during the first nine months of the year.
“An acceleration in closures in the final quarter of 2025 shows the toll that relentless increases in operating costs are taking on hospitality,” said Karl Chessell, NIQ’s director of hospitality operators and food, EMEA.
“The dip is particularly concerning as it came during hospitality’s most important trading period of the year, when businesses usually build the cash reserves to get through the quieter start to the new year.”
The restaurant and casual dining segments faced the sharpest decline, down 1 and 1.8 percent respectively, while drink-based businesses fared better, with bars recording quarterly growth of 1 percent.
NIQ attributed the overall decline – equivalent to more than four net closures per day during Q4 – to “relentless inflation for businesses in key cost areas, alongside fragile consumer confidence about spending.”
“Despite the government’s recent rethink on rates for pubs, conditions are unlikely to get any easier in 2026, and business confidence and sales growth both remain weak.”
“Some hospitality groups and entrepreneurs continue to open sites, but without more support and an upswing in people’s spending, we are likely to see hundreds more permanent closures in the months ahead.”
Closures rise
NIQ analysis said… “The dip is particularly concerning as it came during hospitality’s most important trading period of the year, when businesses usually build the cash reserves to get through the quieter start to the new year…
Originally published on Coinslot on February 2, 2026. Republished with permission.