Leader’s response to Dark Kitchens
Councillor Peray Ahmet, The Leader of Haringey Council stated that she supported the local businesses and will bring the issue to the Parliament agenda by taking initiatives with the local MPs.
Cllr Ahmet said: “There doesn’t seem to be a major gap in the law that dark kitchens are exploiting, but there is a clear gap in visibility and accountability that should be addressed by new laws and a different approach to enforcement.”
“We support local businesses as Government action is required over dark kitchens”
“There should be fair competition. Dark kitchens obviously enjoy a major advantage on costs – operating from a shipping container is much cheaper than maintaining a high-street restaurant. While we can’t stop people from ordering food through Apps, what we can do is lobby for more openness and transparency from Apps so that people know when they’re ordering from a dark kitchen or a real one – and whether they’re supporting an independent business or a chain. That would need new regulations from Government, which I strongly believe we need.”
The Leader also said: “The big delivery apps are of course run by huge global companies, and sadly our ability to regulate them has been weakened by Britain’s departure from the European Union. However, I will be writing to our local MPs, David Lammy and Catherine West, on behalf of local traders to ask that they raise this in Parliament and press for new legislation”
Cllr Ahmet shared the opinion of Haringey Council’s administration that she leads about the unfair competition.
The Royal Society for Public Health found evidence that food in dark kitchens is ‘being produced by chefs in a dark, cramped and low paid environment which is frequently either too hot or too cold’. While dark kitchens can be inspected like any other restaurant, they face far less accountability, oversight and scrutiny than public-facing food businesses. That is unfair for other businesses – and dangerous for workers.
The emergence of dark kitchens is not a very happy change in the world. The convenience of internet shopping for food is undermining the café, pub and restaurant trade – and depriving us of the atmosphere, socialisation and human interaction of eating out.
On an App, the distinction between small, local or independent businesses and chains can disappear. Many businesses in dark kitchens look like local businesses but are in fact much bigger companies operating across a wide area.
Delivery Apps also, of course, take a significant cut from sales – and with their dominance of the delivery market, individual businesses have little option than to trade through them. Small businesses selling via Amazon find themselves in the same boat. Without much stronger regulation of the new internet economy, more and more of our historic small businesses will be wiped out.
The internet has brought all sorts of good things – and we should keep those – but we have shaped far too little of the change that has come in the last twenty years. We need a government that is serious about doing so.