Pubs to get support package after business rates backlash

Pubs and music venues in England will be given a 15% discount on their business rates bills from April and will not see increases for two years, the government announced.

Treasury Minister Dan Tomlinson said the three-year package was worth £1,650 for the average pub.

It comes after a backlash against November’s Budget, which left many facing major increases in their business rates bills, and led to more than a thousand pubs banning Labour MPs from their premises.

UK Hospitality has warned that hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the sector are also at risk, calling for the support package to be widened.

According to the government, the package will cost £80m in its first year, and the subsequent two years will be valued by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Tomlinson said pubs are “the cornerstone of so many communities” and the government wanted to “go further” in supporting them after the number of venues fell by nearly 7,000 since 2010.

The government also promised to review how pubs are valued by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), ahead of the next revaluation of premises in 2029.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride dismissed the announcement and described it as a “sticking plaster”, asking: “Is this it?”

“After weeks of telling our local pubs that help was on the way, this is all they get,” he said.

He said the measures would “only delay the pain for a while” before warning that “thousands of businesses despair as their bills skyrocket”.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said the financial aid still left pubs facing higher business rates bills, and it did “nothing at all” for other high street businesses.

She called for the government to increase business rates discounts for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, and for an “emergency” VAT cut for the hospitality sector for a year.

UK Hospitality, which represents the wider sector, said the measures “address an acute challenge facing pubs.

“The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive Budgets,” chair Kate Nicholls said.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said it would “stave off the immediate financial threat posed by accelerating business costs and will help keep the doors open for many”.

BBPA chief executive Emma McClarkin says landlords across the country will “breathe a sigh of relief”, but the organisation’s focus will now turn to long-term reforms to business rates.