The Night Time Industry Association (NTIA) has warned that safety in nightclubs and other music venues could be jeopardised due to a lack of bouncers.
CEO of NITA Michael Kill blames the lack of security staff at venues on people quitting their positions during the pandemic.
The association carried out a survey which showed that staffing levels are under 70% of what they should be.
While the prominent reason former nightlife employees stated for leaving their position was the long-term uncertainty of the pandemic, Brexit, and a lack of EU workers, has also been mentioned as a contributing factor for low staffing levels.
One in five nightlife businesses is said to have either reduced hours or shut entirely due to the security shortage, another blow to the already struggling nightlife sector.
The All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) conducted an online survey in February of 2021 and found that 92% of nightclubs had traded for six months or less during the pandemic.
The survey also found that nightclubs were trading at just 5% of their pre-coronavirus annual revenue during the four-week period.
The damaging pandemic period has further undermined the already weakened United Kingdom night-time industry and many within the sector have blamed a lack of government support for the continued decline.
A Night Time Industries Association review of over 100 nightclubs in February 2021 noted that 43% of nightclubs reviewed had not received any grant support from the Government.
A total of only 12 nightclubs have been awarded funding from the £1.57 billion culture recovery fund, a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was brought into place to help sectors like the night-time industry cover wage costs during closure periods.
However, despite the scheme, the online survey conducted by the APPG over the four weeks of February 2021 found that 51% of nightclub staff had been made redundant.
The survey also found that a further 51% of nightclubs are behind on their rental payments.
With the increasing instability of employment in the sector only growing, nightclub bosses have appealed to the Government to step in.
“Door security staff shortages in the night-time economy are becoming critical,” says Michael Kill
“We carried out a survey a few months ago which found that security resource in the sector was only at 70%, and I am afraid that the situation has only deteriorated further since then.” Kill continued
“Like in other sectors currently seeing shortages, this is a long-term issue and decline in security resources can be tracked back at least 3 years, but this has been hugely exacerbated by the pandemic with many licensed staff leaving the sector.”
He adds that current shortages are “beginning to put the public in real jeopardy”. and has called for the Government to implement policy to assist the struggling sector.
“There are steps the Government can take to ease the problem whether that be funding training initiatives, streamlining new training requirements, or tackling shortages through legislation.”
With the pandemic dealing another blow to the already flagging nightlife sector, government intervention may be the only hope for many nightclubs and their employees.