Pubs and bars across Greater Manchester are slashing beer prices and giving away crisps as drinkers begin their last night on the town before Tier 3 lockdown hits.
The new, strictest measures will mean that any venues who don’t serve ‘substantial’ meals will have to close their doors for the time being.
It’s estimated that up to 2,000 businesses in the region will be impacted by the new rules, which come into effect just after midnight on Friday.
Greater Manchester will go into Tier Three lockdown from midnight, meaning a number of new restrictions will come into force
The city of Manchester is facing a winter of hardship, with thousands of businesses set to be affected by the new lockdown
It means that many bars in the area are now desperately trying to sell their beer before it has to be poured down the drain or left to go bad.
The legendary Swan Street pub Bar Fringe – a Belgian-inspired real ale bar – will be one of many that will have to close from tonight.
The venue opened from 2pm today selling its cask ales for just £2 a pint, including Hobgoblin IPA and Mad Dog Brewing Co’s Mad World bitter APA.
It’ll also be selling bottles to take away as it tries to shift stock.
Across the road, The Smithfield Tavern is in a similar predicament.
The tap house for local brewery Blackjack is going to be closing for the foreseeable future tonight and will be selling all its cask beers on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis until last orders.
Adapting to yet more lockdown restrictions, the brewery itself is also launching a delivery service, selling cask beers in either five or 10-litre boxes, dropped to your doorstep.
‘We have a lot of cask ale to save,’ they said.
In the Northern Quarter, Port Street Beer House will also be forced to close under the new restrictions.
The popular bar has said it needs to ‘get rid’ of as much beer as possible before it’s wasted and will be slashing prices in half, with cask from as little as £1.75 a pint.
Across town, subterranean Victorian drinking den The Gas Lamp will also be forced to shut from tonight.
Announcing they’d be selling cask beer for £2 a pint today, they posted: ‘Right then people, you all know the score, Andy Burnham fought our corner but Boris just swanned in and took a dump right on all our doorsteps!’
Baseball bar Base MCR is also going out swinging before it’s forced to shut from tonight.
Based in the railway arches in the Green Quarter near Victoria Station, the venue has launched its own ‘Help Out to Bat Out’ scheme, with all pints £2 and all batting cages available for £10 per 30 minutes.
In nearby Sadler’s Yard, The Pilcrow will also be locking up tonight and has a lot of crisps to shift – giving them away free as a ‘side’ with every pint.
It’s been a grim week for publicans, but there was at least some good news today as Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced more support for the stricken sector.
While businesses forced to close in the harshest Tier Three areas can access significant funding, there is less available for ‘high risk’ Tier Two regions such as London and Essex – even though the ban on households mixing indoors means that many are getting hammered
Rishi Sunak (pictured today) has unveiled another bailout worth billions of pounds in a bid to boost support for stricken businesses under Tier Two lockdown and the self-employed
The Treasury’s new package includes making the Job Support Scheme, which replaces the current furlough system, more generous and grants of £2,100 available for firms in Tier 2 areas of England.
Importantly for Greater Manchester pubs, many of which have been under equivalent restrictions or even tougher ones since the end of July, payments will be backdated to August.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has welcomed the news.
Chief executive Tom Stainer said: ‘Pubs in areas under Tier 2 restrictions felt like they had the worst of all worlds, with additional restrictions reducing trade further but without receiving additional support – so these new financial support packages, which CAMRA had called for, will be warmly welcomed by the beer and pubs sector.
‘New funds for councils to issue grants for pubs and hospitality businesses, together with reducing the contributions businesses have to pay towards staff wages, will give pubs in areas with high and very high restrictions a much better chance of surviving.
‘We hope that the Government will now encourage all local councils to use the 5 per cent of additional discretionary funding available to make sure that breweries and cider makers receive grants and the financial support they need to cope with reduced trade.
‘But we are not out of the woods yet. The Chancellor must look at a long-term package of financial support covering pubs and brewers in all tiers to help them cope with reduced trade and knocked consumer confidence from measures like the 10pm curfew.
‘This would make sure we avoid permanent mass pub closures and keep our locals, which are at the heart of our communities, open and alive through the difficult weeks and months ahead.’
It comes as Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham today invited Boris Johnson to the city for face-to-face talks to ‘clear the air’ as he said he does not want a ‘lingering political argument’ with the Government.
Mr Burnham has suffered a bruising week after talks with ministers over moving Greater Manchester into Tier Three coronavirus restrictions collapsed, prompting Mr Johnson to unilaterally impose the rules.
The two sides failed to reach an agreement after Mr Burnham initially demanded a £90 million bailout for businesses before saying he could not accept less than £65 million but the PM would go no higher than £60 million.
The failure to reach an agreement prompted a furious war of words but Mr Burnham said this morning he now wants to ‘reset things on a better footing’ as he claimed to be ‘misunderstood down there’ in Westminster.
He later told MPs that the Government still ‘holds all of the power and all of the money’ and that mayors have to ‘go on bended knee’ to ministers to secure funding as he called for devolution to be made a ‘reality’.
However, the chances of a repairing of relations appears slim after Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg accused Mr Burnham of ‘playing party politics of the cheapest and most disagreeable kind’.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson this afternoon denied he had gone to ‘war’ with Mr Burnham and other local leaders as he said that was ‘not the case’ and stressed he had had ‘great conversations’ with politicians across the country.