More than 49,000 businesses claimed £849m through Eat Out to Help Out scheme

More than 49,000 businesses made a claim through the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, with £849m claimed and more than 160 million meals discounted during August.

The average discount per meal claimed for was £5.24 and the number of meals discounted and total value of claims increased each week throughout the month.

The discount was claimed by 55% of businesses operating as restaurants, with a further 28% claimed by pubs. Businesses with just one participating outlet took 93% of claims and 52% of the total discount.

Less than 1% of claims were from businesses with more than 25 outlets, but these businesses made up 34% of the meals claimed for and 27% of the total discount claimed.

The scheme enabled restaurants, cafés, pubs and other eligible establishments such as workplace and school canteens to offer a discount to customers dining in their outlet and obtain a reimbursement from HMRC.

The scheme offered a 50% discount off the purchase of food and non-alcoholic drinks bought to eat in, up to a maximum of £10 per person. The discount was available all day every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 3-31 August.

The initiative was praised for producing bumper sales for the hospitality industry, with many operators continuing to self-fund extensions of the scheme after it ended in September, and pushing the UK's inflation rate to a five-year low in August.