Petition · past parliament · Cabinet Office
Remove dry cleaners from the list of essential businesses during the pandemic
Closed
1,719 signatures
What the petition asks
Allow dry cleaners to access funding, rather than be forced to stay open with no demand for their services. Government has artificially reduced demand by up to 95%, closing hospitality trade, drastically reducing the scale of weddings and funerals and strongly advising people to work from home.
The government has closed the industries of virtually all the categories of people who make up the customer base of dry cleaners. The industry has seen an unsustainable drop in demand of up to 95%
As dry cleaners are classed as ' essential' because of the misunderstanding of the difference between dry cleaners and laundrettes, they are not LEGALLY being forced to close or restrict their operations.
So despite the huge reduction in demand they can't access funding available to other businesses.
As dry cleaners are classed as ' essential' because of the misunderstanding of the difference between dry cleaners and laundrettes, they are not LEGALLY being forced to close or restrict their operations.
So despite the huge reduction in demand they can't access funding available to other businesses.
Timeline
| 12 Feb 2021 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 12 Aug 2021 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
1,719
Status
Closed
Department
Cabinet Office
Opened
12 Feb 2021
Closed
12 Aug 2021
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.