THE owner of Premier Inn is to axe 1,500 jobs at pubs and restaurants around the UK as it seeks to expand its hotel offering. 

Whitbread wants to sell 126 restaurants, with 21 sales already having gone through.

It has been reported they will also be changing 112 restaurants into hotels.

The group, which owns restaurant brands including Brewers Fayre and Beefeater, said the job cuts are still subject to consultation and come from its total UK workforce of 37,000 employees. 

The move is part of a plan to “optimise” its food and drink offering, add more than 3,500 hotel rooms across its estate and increase “operational efficiencies”, it said.

Premier Inn currently has eleven hotels in Cumbria, with four in Carlisle, and two in Penrith. 

There are four Brewers Fayre restaurants in Cumbria and a Beefeater in Carlisle. 

It is not yet known if Cumbria staff will be impacted by any job losses. 

Dominic Paul, Whitbread chief executive, said: "We recognise that our transition will impact some of our team members so we will be providing support throughout this process and we are committed to working hard to enable as many as possible of those affected to remain with us.

"The short-term impact on our profit performance this year will be more than offset by an uplift from FY27 with further increases thereafter in both margins and returns as we open more of the new extensions."