Gyms can no longer bear the weight of the Government’s bad decisions

Recent work from home restrictions have been yet another crushing blow to the fitness industry, especially the city centre-focused boutique studio sector. After a year of low office occupancy rates, further work from home orders and a likely lost January trading period (the most important month of our year), many firms are teetering on a knife edge. 

Prior to Covid-19, our 21 outposts alone would see well over 100,000 bookings each month; the pandemic changed all that, with months of closures leading to many firms building up large rent arrears, debts and VAT bills – all of which could take years to recover from.

My co-founders and I are among 10 of the leading studios to write an open letter to the Prime Minister about the decimation of our industry. Since the Plan B restrictions came in two weeks ago, we have seen cancellations spike 40 per cent and now, with rates support coming close to ending and still no VAT reduction, many in the sector look to have a perilous future. Given Prof Chris Whitty’s statement last April  – “there is no situation, no age, no condition, where exercise is not a good thing”  – it is hard to understand why the Government refuses to recognise the importance of the fitness industry in this fight.

January and February have always been record months for sign ups and sales. These are businesses customers love and want. With current restrictions we are facing a complete loss of the most vital period in the year’s trading, at a time when we need it more than ever.

It’s easy to reduce businesses and their impact to stats and data, but what the data doesn’t show is the emotional toll on these mainly independent businesses. These studios are all run by owners, founders and individuals who have poured their souls into companies that provide a break away from the stresses of life, and escape for an endorphin rush.

These places are primed for good health: not only in what they offer but, across the fitness sector, the Covid transmission rate was 0.83 cases per 100,000 visits between May and November. Excellent ventilation systems, regular deep cleaning and our central focus being good health are at the core of this.

Since boutique studios were allowed to re-open in May, trading has been at 50 per cent of pre-Covid levels – something that is simply not sustainable while paying back the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, Bounce Back Loan Scheme, rent arrears and a 20 per cent VAT rate. 

We are in a health pandemic, yet the Government thinks it makes sense to give McDonalds a VAT rate cut but not the health industry. While there are not many easy decisions in a pandemic, surely the easiest one of them all would be to protect a sector that wants to make the nation healthier in both body and mind.

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