Share this post:
They say one thing – and they do another.
Labour’s spokespeople – most notably Rachel Reeves – have been talking themselves blue in the face, trying to convince hospitality businesses and their patrons that the government wants them to thrive.
But in practice, every move the government makes has worsened the situation.
The latest is a forthcoming rise in business rates that – while expected – is disproportionate when weighed against footfall and takings, which have fallen significantly.
The BBC has reported it as follows:
“Pub landlords have warned the government of “dire consequences” if planned increases in business rates come into force in 2026.
“But a Treasury spokesperson insisted the government is “protecting pubs, restaurants and cafes with the Budget’s £4.3bn support package.”
“Landlord Luke Honeychurch, said the tax increase on his pub would leave him “unable to pay myself a wage at all”.
““At the moment we pay around £100 a month,” he explained.
“Next year, it will go up to £820 a month”.
““At the moment I’m already only taking half the minimum wage, around £6 an hour. But this is going to mean me earning nothing at all. That’s just unsustainable.””
Government spokespeople keep talking up a planned £4.3 billion “support package” – but hospitality businesspeople seem to consider this to be more window dressing than a serious attempt to save the industry.
Please take a moment to complete the Vox Political Reader Survey.
Your answers are anonymous and will help shape future coverage.
Click here to take part.
The Budget has confirmed that from April 1, 2026, the government will apply new, permanently lower business-rates multipliers for “Retail, Hospitality and Leisure” properties – shops, pubs, restaurants, and leisure venues – with rateable values below £500,000.
For these “qualifying” properties, the “small business RHL multiplier” will be 38.2p, as opposed to the “standard RHL multiplier” of 43.0p (for 2026/27) — meaning that their rate bills will lower than the standard business-rates.
The aim is said to be to give long-term certainty and structural support to high-street hospitality & retail businesses — rather than temporary, year-by-year relief.
This is completely undermined by the fact that hospitality properties have been revalued and are likely to see their business rates increase by up to 76 per cent at the same time.
The government is offering transitional relief, with bills capped for a short period rather than rising by the full amount instantly.
The government has also signalled it will encourage licensing authorities (local councils) to grant more flexibility to pubs, restaurants, and venues — easier licences for late-night openings or extended hours, outdoor dining, and generally simplified planning/licencing conditions for hospitality.
This is supposed to help high-street hospitality venues adapt, diversify, and — in theory — increase revenue opportunities rather than strictly limiting them to “old-style pub hours.” Landlords say it is pointless at a time when they are limiting their opening hours due to lack of footfall – because people can’t afford to come out.
The government also says it will appoint a “Retail and Hospitality Envoy” to champion these businesses internally — claiming that this shows a commitment at policy-level to support and review regulation around the sector. More window-dressing?
There are huge problems with the government’s plan – that ministers have not bothered to address:
The new multipliers (38.2p / 43p) and business rate relief only apply to properties with rateable values of less than £500,000. Pubs or hospitality venues with higher valuation (or larger footprint) may pay the “high-value” multiplier instead.
Because properties are being re-valued (based on 2024 data), many pubs are getting much higher “rateable values”, which — even with a lower multiplier — will mean they may end up paying nearly twice as much as before.
The transitional relief and protections are temporary/phased, so pubs may still face significant increases to their bills if costs (wages, energy, inflation) continue rising and customers’ prosperity does not improve enough for them to start coming out again.
And industry representatives have been ignored.
Remember the #TaxedOut campaign?
It called for the restoration of a 75 per cent business rate relief scheme that was scrapped this year; the new scheme doesn’t provide anything close to that kind of protection.
It also called for a reduction of VAT on hospitality services.
And like many others, it demanded the reversal of the plan to increase employer National Insurance contributions for employees.
These would have been lifelines for hospitality businesses, but Rachel Reeves and other government ministers have withdrawn them.
There are regional variations: I live in Wales, where the hospitality/retail-leisure sector currently benefits from a 40 per cent discount on non-domestic rates bills for eligible pubs, restaurants, hotels and so on, subject to a cap of £110,000 per business across all Welsh properties.
And the Welsh Government announced this month (December 2025) a package of extra support, meaning that if a business’s rates bill would increase significantly due to the revaluation, the rise will be phased in over two years if the increase is more than £300 next year.
Is a collapse of pub culture really on the cards?
From what I understand, the situation could become very bad indeed – perhaps worse than many policymakers seem to appreciate.
The combination of revaluation, tapered relief and broader cost pressures means many pubs may effectively see a doubling of business-rates bills over a short period — which for small, tight-margin pubs can be the difference between survival and closure.
The warnings from people on the ground suggest the numbers are already “unpayable”. This is not about a few marginal venues: it feels systemic.
Because pubs — especially in smaller towns and rural areas — are social infrastructure, closures hit beyond economics and into community cohesion; these are hubs for socialising – working-class gathering places. So this crisis has a cultural dimension, and is not just about business-accounting.
And the fact that many demands from the #TaxedOut campaign remain unmet means the current plan can only be considered a stopgap, not a solution.
From what we’re seeing, it is more than plausible that many more pubs, especially those that are independent, could close in the coming years.
The outcome may well be consolidation: chains and big operators that can absorb shocks survive, while smaller locals vanish – exactly what the landlords in the BBC article feared.
And we should fear it too. The government may welcome it – but do you really want the price you pay for a night out to be dictated by a faceless corporation whose only concern is how much cash they can screw out of you?
Share this post:
Like this:
Like Loading...
Business rate rise belies Labour’s claim to be supporting UK pubs
Share this post:
They say one thing – and they do another.
Labour’s spokespeople – most notably Rachel Reeves – have been talking themselves blue in the face, trying to convince hospitality businesses and their patrons that the government wants them to thrive.
But in practice, every move the government makes has worsened the situation.
The latest is a forthcoming rise in business rates that – while expected – is disproportionate when weighed against footfall and takings, which have fallen significantly.
The BBC has reported it as follows:
“Pub landlords have warned the government of “dire consequences” if planned increases in business rates come into force in 2026.
“But a Treasury spokesperson insisted the government is “protecting pubs, restaurants and cafes with the Budget’s £4.3bn support package.”
“Landlord Luke Honeychurch, said the tax increase on his pub would leave him “unable to pay myself a wage at all”.
““At the moment we pay around £100 a month,” he explained.
“Next year, it will go up to £820 a month”.
““At the moment I’m already only taking half the minimum wage, around £6 an hour. But this is going to mean me earning nothing at all. That’s just unsustainable.””
Government spokespeople keep talking up a planned £4.3 billion “support package” – but hospitality businesspeople seem to consider this to be more window dressing than a serious attempt to save the industry.
The Budget has confirmed that from April 1, 2026, the government will apply new, permanently lower business-rates multipliers for “Retail, Hospitality and Leisure” properties – shops, pubs, restaurants, and leisure venues – with rateable values below £500,000.
For these “qualifying” properties, the “small business RHL multiplier” will be 38.2p, as opposed to the “standard RHL multiplier” of 43.0p (for 2026/27) — meaning that their rate bills will lower than the standard business-rates.
The aim is said to be to give long-term certainty and structural support to high-street hospitality & retail businesses — rather than temporary, year-by-year relief.
This is completely undermined by the fact that hospitality properties have been revalued and are likely to see their business rates increase by up to 76 per cent at the same time.
The government is offering transitional relief, with bills capped for a short period rather than rising by the full amount instantly.
The government has also signalled it will encourage licensing authorities (local councils) to grant more flexibility to pubs, restaurants, and venues — easier licences for late-night openings or extended hours, outdoor dining, and generally simplified planning/licencing conditions for hospitality.
This is supposed to help high-street hospitality venues adapt, diversify, and — in theory — increase revenue opportunities rather than strictly limiting them to “old-style pub hours.” Landlords say it is pointless at a time when they are limiting their opening hours due to lack of footfall – because people can’t afford to come out.
The government also says it will appoint a “Retail and Hospitality Envoy” to champion these businesses internally — claiming that this shows a commitment at policy-level to support and review regulation around the sector. More window-dressing?
There are huge problems with the government’s plan – that ministers have not bothered to address:
The new multipliers (38.2p / 43p) and business rate relief only apply to properties with rateable values of less than £500,000. Pubs or hospitality venues with higher valuation (or larger footprint) may pay the “high-value” multiplier instead.
Because properties are being re-valued (based on 2024 data), many pubs are getting much higher “rateable values”, which — even with a lower multiplier — will mean they may end up paying nearly twice as much as before.
The transitional relief and protections are temporary/phased, so pubs may still face significant increases to their bills if costs (wages, energy, inflation) continue rising and customers’ prosperity does not improve enough for them to start coming out again.
And industry representatives have been ignored.
Remember the #TaxedOut campaign?
It called for the restoration of a 75 per cent business rate relief scheme that was scrapped this year; the new scheme doesn’t provide anything close to that kind of protection.
It also called for a reduction of VAT on hospitality services.
And like many others, it demanded the reversal of the plan to increase employer National Insurance contributions for employees.
These would have been lifelines for hospitality businesses, but Rachel Reeves and other government ministers have withdrawn them.
There are regional variations: I live in Wales, where the hospitality/retail-leisure sector currently benefits from a 40 per cent discount on non-domestic rates bills for eligible pubs, restaurants, hotels and so on, subject to a cap of £110,000 per business across all Welsh properties.
And the Welsh Government announced this month (December 2025) a package of extra support, meaning that if a business’s rates bill would increase significantly due to the revaluation, the rise will be phased in over two years if the increase is more than £300 next year.
Is a collapse of pub culture really on the cards?
From what I understand, the situation could become very bad indeed – perhaps worse than many policymakers seem to appreciate.
The combination of revaluation, tapered relief and broader cost pressures means many pubs may effectively see a doubling of business-rates bills over a short period — which for small, tight-margin pubs can be the difference between survival and closure.
The warnings from people on the ground suggest the numbers are already “unpayable”. This is not about a few marginal venues: it feels systemic.
Because pubs — especially in smaller towns and rural areas — are social infrastructure, closures hit beyond economics and into community cohesion; these are hubs for socialising – working-class gathering places. So this crisis has a cultural dimension, and is not just about business-accounting.
And the fact that many demands from the #TaxedOut campaign remain unmet means the current plan can only be considered a stopgap, not a solution.
From what we’re seeing, it is more than plausible that many more pubs, especially those that are independent, could close in the coming years.
The outcome may well be consolidation: chains and big operators that can absorb shocks survive, while smaller locals vanish – exactly what the landlords in the BBC article feared.
And we should fear it too. The government may welcome it – but do you really want the price you pay for a night out to be dictated by a faceless corporation whose only concern is how much cash they can screw out of you?
Share this post:
Like this:
you might also like
The pub’s not too loud — it’s too quiet, too often
Like this:
Ignorance, stupidity, or deliberate design? Is the government killing small firms under false pretences?
Like this:
#TaxedOut and shut out: hospitality’s cry for help
Like this:
Like this: