A delay in the vaccine rollout will be the nail in the coffin for many businesses, bosses have warned, following reports that EU-related supply problems could halt the process by two months.
Tensions between the UK and the EU have been rising ahead of a vote this week as to whether exports of the vaccine to the UK should be paused.
According to data analytics company Airfinity this would see the rollout put back by two months, with the date for all adults to have received their first jab pushed back as late as August 5.
The news would be "hugely detrimental" to the nightlife and hospitality sector said Glen Sarabi of G and J Hospitality which runs nightclubs Truth and Mantra in Norwich.
He added: "A delay could be the end of a lot of businesses. Most places are going ahead recruiting and training staff, stocking the bar and so on. If they're told they can't open and have wasted their money it'll be the end of it for a lot of places."
Nick Attfield, director of properties at Adnams which runs pubs across Norfolk including The White Horse at Blakeney, said: "We are investing lots of time and resource into getting ready for these openings.
"We're taking bookings, doing all the marketing, doing all the behind the scenes stuff. There's a huge amount of work going on there.
"If the vaccine rollout slows down and then they have to put back these dates that is when it will get tiring, frustrating and put extra financial burdens on us.
"It's not that we don't understand the logic and the science behind it, but these are the practical realities of our industry.
"It's like trying to build on sand."
He was echoed by Richard Graveling, one of the owners of The Grove Hotel in Cromer, who said: "Luckily we're in a position where we are financially stable but there are a lot of companies who will be keeping one eye on the calendar and the other on the bank balance. It'll be a race to see which gets to the bottom first.
"For hospitality businesses, even more so on the coast, so much of our trade relies on the summer months to see us through the winter period. If we start seeing the summer season eaten into by delays there'll be businesses out there wondering how they'll survive through until Christmas."
The key for hospitality, said Steve Munson of The Gull Inn at Framingham Pigot, will be to keep on track until May: "What makes all the difference for businesses is having household mixing inside. When we were in tiers and people couldn't mix that made a lot of businesses unviable.
"If we can get through until May with mixing and the better weather that puts us in a better position to get some cash in and survive until a busier season with everyone vaccinated at Christmas."
But the public is already wary of delays to the rollout, said Nigel Richards, managing director of Waterside Breaks and Waterways Holidays.
The director of the Wroxham-based company, which hosts one of the largest holiday boating fleets in the country, said: "By no means are people not booking holidays because of a potential delay - in fact I think with all the stories in the news about travel abroad it's actually meant we're busier.
"However what we are seeing is families who would usually book one large cruiser for a few families instead booking a couple of smaller ones so that they're not mixing households. That was they can have a self-contained holiday but travel together depending on restrictions.
"Of course we will go from what the government advises and will offer rebooks and refunds, but most people are so keen to get away that they would rather have something in the diary."
- How has the UK-EU vaccine supply row unfolded?
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen threatened to block exports of jabs from the EU to countries with higher vaccination rates that do not offer reciprocal supplies of vaccine.
Under pressure over the bloc’s relatively poor vaccine rollout, she ramped up the rhetoric this weekend, saying the EU has the power to “forbid” exports, adding: “That is the message to AstraZeneca.”
This reflects growing frustration on the continent that the bloc is not getting the supplies it expected from AstraZeneca.
But the British-Swedish manufacturer has previously maintained that because the bloc signed its contract later than the UK, EU manufacturing facilities were still catching up.
Around 10 million doses of vaccine, mainly the BioNTech/Pfizer jab, have crossed the English Channel to the UK, but Brussels has complained that no AstraZeneca doses have been sent in the other direction.
Reports have suggested the latest focus of the row is on AstraZeneca vaccines produced in the Halix plant in the Netherlands, with officials arguing they should be kept for the EU rather than allowed to be exported to the UK.
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