Curry restaurant owner says his restaurant could close in the next six months without government support.

Two curry restaurants are currently closing each week in the UK.

Transcript

00:00If you carry on like what we're doing business at the moment, I won't survive for a year.

00:05Because people used to come in once a week, they come in once a month. They even told

00:10me they can't afford to come out. They haven't got the budget to come out. People don't get

00:15any extra money at all.

00:17Mr Rahman has been running Mother India in Bolmire for close to 30 years. However, he

00:23has serious concerns for the future. He's struggling with a massive downturn in customers

00:28and he's not alone. Across our region, we're seeing many curry restaurants close forever.

00:35And if I don't survive for a year, being in this for such a long time, you could say 95%

00:41of the Indian restaurants there will close, which already, a few have closed already.

00:48The Asian Catering Federation say they believe that government support has been inadequate

00:53for struggling curry houses. Business rates, high rents and increasing operational costs

00:59are significant burdens. The lack of skilled chefs due to restrictive immigration policies,

01:06they say, further exacerbates the issue. Although some grants and schemes are available, they

01:11believe them to be insufficient to address the industry's challenges comprehensively.

01:17My business has gone down really badly. It's not just mine, it's the Chinese, Indian, all

01:22catering section. People haven't got the money. We are in a general election period right

01:28now and indeed all the major political parties have pledged support for small businesses

01:34through various measures. The question is, will it be enough to save the many small businesses

01:39who are struggling across our part of the world? What we need from the government now

01:45for small business is to get the VAT down to 5%. So if the small business can't survive,

01:50it's no good. All the shops are closing, all the restaurants are closing. So we need

01:56to get started again with the help from the government somehow.