Pubs bailout might come TODAY… however enterprise charges reliefs ‘shall be momentary’ and hospitality pleas set to be snubbed
Rachel Reeves could unveil a £300million bailout package for pubs as early as today – but snub pleas from the wider hospitality sector.
The Chancellor is expected to announce around £100million a year of extra support for business rates until 2029 after a major revolt by Labour MPs.
However, she is set to stop short of the fundamental changes that have been demanded by many firms and backbenchers – with warnings of a wave of closures.
The move comes as pubs pointed out they are being hit with a double whammy, as business rates increases trigger automatic hikes in charges for showing sports channels.
In the Budget, Ms Reeves boasted about cutting business rates by introducing a lower ‘multiplier’ – used to calculate the commercial property tax.
However, that tweak was more than offset by the removal of a Covid-era 40 per cent discount to business rates bills for hospitality, leisure and retail businesses, as well as new property valuations.
Rachel Reeves could unveil a £300million bailout package for pubs as early as today – but snub pleas from the wider hospitality sector
The Chancellor is expected to announce around £100million a year of extra support for pubs until 2029 after a major revolt by Labour MPs
Ms Reeves has also hammered the hospitality sector by ramping up national insurance for employers, making staffing more expensive.
The Chancellor introduced transitional relief to manage increases to rates bills over the next three years after the removal of sector discounts.
However, industry bodies UKHospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association warned that pub business rates bills would still increase by an average of 15 per cent, or £1,400, in April.
They said this will be an average rise of 76 per cent, or £7,000, by the 2028-29 financial year – and some outlets face far higher increases.
The support package is not likely to satisfy hotels, where business rates bills are set to jump by an average of 115 per cent a year, or £111,300, over the next three years.
Pharmacies have also warned they are facing massive hikes in their costs.
Earlier this week, Revolution bars group The Revel Collective said they were filing to appoint administrators in the face of weak consumer confidence and higher costs.
A number of other hospitality groups, such as TGI Fridays UK and Leon, have also entered insolvency in recent months.
Chris Tulloch of Blind Tiger Inns – which operates 24 pubs – told the BBC he was braced for bills for Sky and TNT sports channels to rise in line with rates.
He said: ‘We’re very much in the dark about the ‘lifeline’ that we might be getting as pubs – which still seems like a very strange analogy given that they’re causing the problem in the first place…
‘The potential backtrack, if you will, is being called a ‘rescue deal’, ‘lifeline’ and a ‘bail out’, but to me that doesn’t really fit what’s happening.’
