Up to 6,000 jobs are being axed at Premier Inn owner Whitbread as the group warned the coronavirus crisis will continue to hammer demand.

The group said the cuts would impact 18% of the total workforce across its hotel and restaurant brands, which also includes the Beefeater pubs and Brewers Fayre chains.

It is hoping a "significant proportion" of the job cuts will be made through voluntary redundancy and lowered contracted hours for some staff.

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Whitbread said the plans come as demand is set to remain subdued in the short to medium-term and with the Government's furlough scheme coming to an end next month.

The job losses also come on top of cuts to reduce its head office workforce by up to a fifth, impacting around 150 jobs.

Alison Brittain, chief executive of Whitbread, said: "With demand for travel remaining subdued, we are now having to make some very difficult decisions, and it is with great regret that today we are announcing our intention to enter into a consultation process that could result in up to 6,000 redundancies in the UK, of which it is hoped that a significant proportion can be achieved voluntarily."

Whitbread expects the jobs to go by the end of the year.

It said the vast majority of its 900 hotels and 350 restaurants would remain open.

It came as Whitbread revealed like-for-like sales crashed 77.6% in the six months to August 27 after the coronavirus lockdown forced the closure of its estate.

The group said hotel sales growth has been strong since reopening, with those in UK seaside and tourist locations almost 80% full in August as more Britons staycationed due to travel fears amid the pandemic.

Demand in London and other city centres remained under pressure, with total occupancy levels at 51% on average last month and sales still 47.3% lower.

The Government's popular Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme in August helped boost its eateries, with the decline in total hotel and restaurant sales narrowing to 38.5% last month.

Trading in the first two months of September remained ahead of the wider market, according to the group, with bookings in tourist destinations still strong.

Whitbread flagged the increased restrictions by the Government to clamp down on a second wave of the pandemic and said it will "continue to closely monitor the situation".

Ms Brittain said: "Our performance following the reopenings has been ahead of the market, however, it has been clear from the beginning of this crisis that even as restrictions are eased and hospitality businesses such as ours reopen their doors, that demand would be materially lower than full year 2020 levels for a period of time."

Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce new measures at Holyrood to tackle the spread of coronavirus across Scotland.

The Scottish First Minister has said she will decide on further restrictions with her ministers following a Cobra meeting on Tuesday morning.

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It comes after four chief medical officers across the UK nations decided that the Covid-19 alert level should be raised to four.

Ms Sturgeon tweeted on Monday: "4 UK CMOs - inc @DrGregorSmith - agree raising of #Covid_19 alert level to 4.

"I'll participate in COBR meeting tomorrow am, after which @scotgov Cabinet will agree measures to bring virus back under control in Scotland.

"I'll then offer statement to @ScotParl tomorrow pm."

The First Minister previously said coronavirus is spreading again in Scotland and "further and urgent action" is needed to stop the increase, warning if left unchecked it will lead to more cases, people in hospital and deaths.

She said the Scottish Government is prepared to introduce "a package of additional measures" but will aim to avoid a full-scale lockdown such as the one imposed in March.

On Monday, restrictions were announced in Northern Ireland meaning there will be no mixing of two households indoors, except for single-person bubbles and certain other exemptions, from 6pm on Tuesday.

No more than six people from two households can meet in private gardens.

Ms Sturgeon added: "I will be clear that I am willing to allow a bit more time for four-nations discussions to take place before making final decisions for Scotland.

"But I will be equally clear that the urgency of this situation will mean that we cannot, must not and will not wait too long."

Travel firm Tui said 1.4 million customers have travelled with the group since restarting holidays, but revealed further cuts to its programmes amid "continuous" changes in government travel advice.

The holiday giant said it had cut its fourth quarter programme from 30% to just 25%, with the upcoming winter holiday capacity recently reduced by around another fifth.

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It has also switched to alternative low-risk destinations, but said the last month has been impacted by "continuous changes in travel advice by various governments across our markets", with holidaymakers now booking very last minute as a result.

Tui added that bookings for this summer are 83% lower than a year earlier and prices have fallen by 19%, while winter sales are 59% down year on year.

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