Night Time Economy Market Tracker Report: £153.91bn Industry Faces Growth Slowdown Amid Rising Costs & Tax Increases 10 Feb 2025
The New Night Time Economy Market Tracker Report highlights both resilience and significant challenges in the UK’s night-time economy. While consumer spending has shown growth similar to pre-COVID-19 levels, the overall pace of recovery has slowed, underscoring the ongoing difficulties faced by the sector.
The NTIA calls on policymakers to recognise the fundamental role the night-time economy plays in the UK’s broader economic and cultural landscape and to take decisive action to safeguard its future.
Key Growth Trends:
-The Night Time Cultural Economy has shown a stronger growth rate of 3.2%, outpacing the total market growth of 2.3%.
-Despite this, growth across all sectors has slowed since 2023, emphasizing the broader economic pressures on the industry.
-GVA, a key measure of industry productivity used by HM Treasury and economists, indicates stagnation across the leisure and night-time economy subsectors in 2023.
-Rising business costs, including labour, food, and drink, have significantly impacted profitability despite increased consumer spending.
-Employment in the UK’s night-time economy showed slight overall growth in 2023, demonstrating resilience.
-However, employment in key areas saw sharp declines:
i)Licensed club employment fell from 88,300 in 2022 to 68,200 in 2023.
ii)Pub and bar employment dropped from 540,400 in 2022 to 474,300 in 2023.
-Conversely, jobs in sporting venues, clubs, and gyms grew significantly from 409,900 in 2022 to 452,800 in 2023, indicating a shift in leisure employment dynamics.
-Pre-2020 Growth: The Out-of-Home Culture & Leisure Economy saw steady annual growth of 2.8% to 6.4% between 2010 and 2019.
-Pandemic Impact: A severe contraction in 2020 saw a 37.2% revenue decline, with the Night-time Economy plunging 42.2%.
-Post-Pandemic Recovery: Strong rebounds in 2021 (28.9%) and 2022 (34.4%) restored much of the sector’s lost ground.
-2023-2024 Stabilisation: Growth slowed to 4.5% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2024, signalling market stabilisation.
-The Night-time Economy remains the largest segment, reaching £153.91bn in 2024, with growth slowing to 2.5%.
-The Day-Time Economy saw modest growth, reaching £69.6bn in 2024 with a 1.8% increase.
-The Night-time Cultural Economy reached £42.71bn in 2024, maintaining a 3.2% growth rate.
-The Out-of-Home Culture & Leisure Economy employed 3.16 million people in 2023, showing long-term growth despite fluctuations.
-The Night-time Economy reached 2.11 million jobs in 2023, while the Night-time Cultural Economy employed 471k.
-The UK’s night-time economy remains a major economic force, but growth is slowing due to rising operational costs.
-Despite a post-pandemic rebound, employment figures in key areas such as pubs and clubs have declined, highlighting structural shifts within the sector.
-The industry continues to demonstrate resilience, but economic pressures require urgent attention to sustain long-term growth.
“The findings of this report clearly illustrate the immense challenges our sector continues to face. While the night-time economy remains a £153.91bn powerhouse, we cannot ignore the fact that growth is slowing and operating costs are rising at unsustainable levels. Many businesses, especially small medium enterprises and the cultural sectors, are struggling to maintain profitability despite consumer demand.”
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