Hopes have been raised that hospitality businesses may be able to recoup some of their losses from covid-19 following a High Court ruling on business interruption insurance. In a test case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the High Court ruled that policies with pandemic or notifiable disease clauses should be read as having…

New planning rules could limit the spread of unhealthy takeaway outlets and offer more opportunity for communities to operate their own shops. The UK Government recently announced changes to use classes ahead of broader reform of the planning system. Use class is a classification of land uses which determines whether changes of use to a…

Ireland is to impose a charge on single-use coffee cups and plans to eliminate them from some towns, universities and commercial centres altogether. The government also wants to extend the levy to cold drinks cups and prohibit the use of disposable cups at large events. Through its new “waste action plan for a circular economy”,…

Supermarkets and foodservice operators have urged the UK Government to make “vital changes” to the Fisheries Bill as it returned to Parliament this week. The Bill could “seriously damage the sustainability of UK fisheries”, warned members of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition in a letter to environment secretary George Eustice. Members of the coalition, including Tesco,…

Supermarkets could cut plastic waste in half by 2025 by reducing unnecessary packaging and switching to reuse models. A new report by Greenpeace found that by focusing their attention on the packaging for 54 grocery categories supermarkets could cut throwaway plastic by 50% by 2025. And by zeroing in on the 13 categories with the…

Hawksmoor has warned that restaurants will need to “stand on their own two feet” after the government’s successful Eat Out to Help Out scheme came to an end. New payment data showed that the scheme, which saw the government subsidise the cost of eating out by 50% from Monday to Wednesday up to a value…