I will take the questions in turn.
Star Pubs & Bars is part of Heineken, the global brand. We bid for capital to invest in the UK and in Scotland. One does not get access “on a whim” to the £190 million that we have invested in pubs over the past five years—nothing could be further from the truth.
We have a very structured process, which, in effect, assesses every pub in our estate. We work our way through a proper estates review process. We have a plan for every pub, which shows where the investment opportunities are and where it is right to invest. We are constantly assessing changing demographics and changing consumer needs. That drives our investment process plan, in a five-year outlook, and that crystallises into what we plan in any given year.
For example, last year, as I have said, we invested £5 million in Scotland. We would have been working on that investment in the two years leading up to it. Those are very involved big capital projects of more than £250,000, which create a massive supply chain of jobs in the set-up and delivery of a pub, which are on-going in the successful delivery of that pub. I hope that that shows that there is rigour around the process.
I turn to rent. The Covid period is, without doubt, the biggest challenge that the industry has ever faced. We have had to close businesses to people. Let us hope that we never experience that again. I firmly believe that Covid has crystallised the benefits of the tied pub model. We immediately suspended rent, as we assessed the situation. We issued a series of significant rent concessions for the closed period, which were either 50 per cent, 75 per cent or 90 per cent. We extended the concessions for the first two months of opening, and, last week, we committed to additional support for September and October, with continued rent concessions, as people build their businesses back up. In Scotland, that is a £2 million-plus investment from us to support pubs.
Most important, we are giving people surety and understanding in a period of massive uncertainty. To reopen a pub in Covid is hugely challenging. We acknowledge that there are increased staff costs and complexity, and an increased onus on the operators to focus on delivery. They do not want to be worrying about the rent, and we have made commitments in that regard.
Alongside that, we have packaged all the support and interpretation of Government guidance to make it simple and accessible, together with a plethora of point-of-sale and “how to” guidance. That has enabled significant numbers—90-odd per cent—of our pubs to open and trade in this very challenging period. Let us be clear: there are more challenges to come over the next six to 12 months as we rebuild trade back.