He called on the government to issue a plan of reopening based on criteria met by pubs and to pay up money promised to help with the loss of Christmas sales. Nearly three quarters of pubs have still not received the £1,000 grant promised by the prime minister in December. "In the summer pubs were not seen as a vector of transmission, publicans have got no certainty and they are getting fed up with losing sleep over what's going to happen in the next three months. "Some pubs aren't even getting the money through promised in December because the local council hasn't been given it, and VAT needs to be deferred again or scrapped as there is no way people can afford to pay these bills.