Eat Out to Help Out relaunch hinted at following it’s summer success

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme that proved so popular in the summer might just be relaunched this winter to help the hospitality industry recover after the second lockdown ends. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 50% off food scheme was first implemented in August to help cafes, restaurants and pubs recover from the challenges the pandemic has posed.

Now the chancellor has hinted that this winter may see the scheme return after this morning saw the revelation emerge that the UK economy had bounced back from recession with 15.5% growth in three months. 

How did Rishi Sunak respond?

When asked whether a new winter version of the popular scheme could possibly return after the end of England’s second lockdown, Sunak told Sky News: ‘We’ll have to look at the economic situation then and see what the best form of our support.”

The chancellor has reportedly warned that today's figures show that our economy was "recovering over the summer, but started to slow going into autumn."

He also confirmed that the government “want to get consumers spending again" and to "get them out and about” after lockdown is over. 

What is Eat Out to Help Out?

The government initially introduced the Eat Out to Help Out scheme back in August. It ran from 3 August to 31 August and offered a 50% discount on meals up to the value of £10 per person at participating restaurants. 

The discount was valid Monday through to Wednesday and a substantial amount of UK restaurants took part. The scheme helped support the struggling hospitality industry as it attempted to bounce back after months of closure due to the nationwide lockdown restrictions.

Brits reportedly redeemed more than 100 million meals on the back of the scheme and restaurant reservations spiked by 53% over August. 

When will we know about a relaunch?

Speaking to Sky News, the Chancellor declined to mention the scheme by name. Instead he went on to say: "I won't talk about specific measures but more broadly, I think it's right that when we finally exit this”.

He added that “hopefully next year with testing and maybe indeed vaccines as well, we'll be able to start looking forward to getting back to normal.”

To help ensure this is the case, the chancellor announced that the government would “look at a range of things to see what the right interventions are at that time.”

So a revival of the Eat Out To Help Out scheme might still be on the cards. But it seems that we will have to wait a few more months yet for the full impact of this second lockdown to be considered.

Only then will the government be able to make a decision on the right measures to help support our economy through into 2021.