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The Insolvency Service recently published statistics showing administrations in the fourth quarter of 2010 and it shows that the hospitality sector has continued to struggle with the adverse weather conditions.

Administrations in the hospitality sector rose by a quarter in the final three months of 2010, as the cold snap which occurred in the final few months of 2010 took its toll.

The Insolvency Service figures also showed a 24% increase in administrations from 38 in the third quarter of 2010 to 47 in the fourth quarter. However, this represents a 22% fall year-onyear from 60 in Q4 2009. Creditors' Voluntary Liquidations also rose by 5% from 189 in Q3 2010 to 198 in Q4.

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) has launched the Hospitality Economy Partnership, a written call for the private sector to form a pragmatic partnership with government in order to drive economic growth.

Research undertaken by Oxford Economics revealed that hospitality currently employs more than 2.4 million people, full and part-time across the UK and is also directly responsible for an additional 1.2 million jobs through the supply chain. In addition, it, explained how up to 236,000 further jobs could be created across the industry over the next five years.

President of the BHA Sir David Michels commented,

“Overseas visitors spend £16 billion a year in the U.K., of which roughly half is earned in our hotels and restaurants. Investment in 2010 alone is worth £8 billion with a thousand hotels built over the last few years. This extrapolates to a figure of nearly £15 billion. The industry between 1998 and 2010 has grown by 206,000 net jobs. To continue that growth we need to work in partnership with the government and others”.

Ufi Ibrahim, the Association’s Chief Executive laid out the key points of the BHA partnership proposal,

“The proposition is really framed around three key areas of action. The first is building upon government and hospitality industry—both must have the responsibility to champion the industry,” she said. “From the top levels of government, from the Prime Minister all the way down to local enterprise partnerships … we have to actively support Visit England and others to ensure that the importance of hospitality is not lost in (current government) transformations. We have to ensure that tourism budgets are not lost”.

“We are also calling for a cross cabinet committee to ensure that at the highest levels of government our industry will be championed,” she said. “The second area is about building a competitive industry in Britain, about minimising regulation, about streamlining, and we want to work very actively with government to achieve this. The third point is about efficiency and transformation in the longer term. We want to embrace sustainability, health and wellness as we move forwards. We don’t want Britain to be left behind, we actually want to lead”.