The number of licensed premises in Britain fell by 0.4% in the last three months of 2025, according to the latest Hospitality Market Monitor from NIQ.
The country had 98,914 sites at the end of December - 382 fewer than in September and equivalent to more than four net closures per day over the fourth quarter.
The figures represent an abrupt end to a resilient year for hospitality, after site numbers rose by 0.2% in the first nine months of 2025, with high inflation and fragile consumer confidence having an impact.
The Hospitality Market Monitor shows fourth-quarter losses were especially high in the casual dining and restaurant segments, which recorded net declines of 1.8% and 1.0% respectively. In the two channels combined, there were 241 net closures in three months, amounting to nearly 19 per week.
Across all food-led businesses, sites fell by 0.8% between September and December.
Fourth-quarter performance was slightly stronger on the drink-led side of hospitality, where numbers slipped only 0.1%. Bars recorded quarter-on-quarter growth of 1.0%—a sign that operators here have been slightly better protected from cost pressures, and that many consumers have been choosing to drink out rather than eat out in recent months.
The monitor also indicates a steady return to growth in London, where site numbers rose by 0.6% over the course of 2025. The capital is still 14% short of the pre-COVID benchmark of March 2020, but hospitality there has been boosted by the steady return of office workers to their desks after sustained periods of working from home, as well as an uptick in visitors from overseas.
“An acceleration in closures in the final quarter of 2025 shows the toll that relentless increases in operating costs are taking on hospitality,” says Karl Chessell, director - hospitality operators and food, EMEA at NIQ.
“The dip is particularly concerning as it came during hospitality’s most important trading period of the year, when businesses usually build the cash reserves to get through the quieter start to the new year.
“Despite the government’s recent rethink on rates for pubs, conditions are unlikely to get any easier in 2026, and business confidence and sales growth both remain weak. Some hospitality groups and entrepreneurs continue to open sites, but without more support and an upswing in people’s spending, we are likely to see hundreds more permanent closures in the months ahead.”