Planning activity for new food and beverage outlets in the capital continued to outstrip the rest of the UK, as London’s resilience to the dining crunch again proves we are a hungry bunch.
Some 23% of all planning applications for new restaurant and bar space over the past decade have been lodged in London – 7m sq ft, according to Radius Data Exchange figures, with 3.5 m sq ft of that coming in single unit eateries.
Applications for restaurants and bars increased by 43% year-on-year compared with 37% in the rest of the country. The sector has not been immune to the slowdown felt by cautious developers, however, with planning activity down by 24% from H1 2017 to H2 2017 and then down by a further 18% in the opening six months of this year.
