HOSPITALITY campaigners have revealed operators have been left nursing a £3.5 million bill because of the three-week “circuit breaker” imposed to suppress rising rates of coronavirus across the central belt.

Bars and restaurants across central Scotland will be closed until at least November 2, when the new five-tier system of lockdown restrictions goes live, as ministers bid to bring the resurgent virus under control.

But the Scottish Hospitality Group has today released figures showing how much the closures will cost the industry, with the grant support provided by the Scottish Government to compensate for the trading ban falling short of the cost of keeping premises closed.

According to the SHG, whose members include the Di Maggio’s Restaurant Group and Ayrshire bar firm Buzzworks, it will cost more than £3.5 million to keep 200-plus venues owned across the group closed for the three-week period, when factors such as fixed costs, stock loss and furlough charges are taken into account. At the same time, it notes, operators will receive £415,000 in government support.

SHG spokesman Stephen Montgomery declared that the disparity illustrates “the lack of sector understanding and the critical need for government engagement in order to support a broken industry”.

The hospitality industry has repeatedly argued that scientific evidence does not support the case for shutting down the sector to halt the spread of the virus.