Busy restaurants belie a tale of tightening belts in cost-of-living crisis

Consumer spending, still partially buoyed by lockdown savings, is about to take a hit. But will it mean recession?

Business has been better than expected this year for Paul Askew's fine-dining restaurant in central Liverpool. He feared for its future amid the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, but so far the punters have kept coming.

January is usually the quietest month," says the chef patron of the Art School restaurant, where menus start at 39 a head. But people were feeling liberated and came out in large numbers. The start of the year was better than we could have hoped, and that has continued."