Great news you might think! But wait, he’s not going to reverse any of the damage his Government has done with its recent budget - no changes to employment taxation, no relief on VAT, no reversal on minimum wage changes, and no suspension of the reduced relief on business rates.
No, he’s going to support the pub industry by occasionally popping into his local, and backing the Mirror’s Save the Pub campaign. A campaign dreamt up by people that appear to have no understanding of the reality the UK’s pubs are facing.
The main aims of the campaign are to create “a fighting fund” to support “struggling boozers” and support for communities wanting to buy their pubs. Just what the sector needs…
And The Mirror has now loudly trumpeted that its wonderful campaign has now got the backing of the Prime Minister.
Expensive bill
So one of the main architects of the pub sector’s current woes is now signing up to “save” the very pubs he and his cronies have put at risk. You couldn’t make it up.
According to The Mirror: “The Prime Minister threw his weight behind The Mirror’s campaign to save our struggling boozers, still reeling from the pandemic and the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.”
No guys, that was the last crisis. Pubs are now reeling from the fact the Government has hiked employment costs with changes to minimum wage and to national insurance contributions and slashed the relief support for business rates, landing pubs with another expensive bill.
Needless to say, the news Sir Keir is concerned about the trade should come as a welcome relief to the sector, but the reality is that The Mirror’s campaign and article illustrates the total lack of understanding about the realities the sector is facing, and the causes of those realities.
Employment across the sector is set to fall, investment projects are being abandoned, expansion plans put on indefinite hold, and operators are left with the unpalatable option of hiking prices in order to stand still and pay the increased costs the Government has loaded onto them.
Tone deaf
It’s great that a national newspaper like The Mirror has recognised there is a problem and is campaigning to help, but sadly the focus of the help is misguided at best and the trumpeting of Sir Keir’s support is tone deaf and illustrates that lack of understanding.
Perhaps The Mirror should have spoken to the people in the industry to find out what it needs before launching their campaign, because, sadly, community ownership won’t change the operating headwinds the sector faces. The campaign ambitions are vague and woolly, with some operators branding them “risible”.
If Sir Keir really wants to really save the sector, it’s well within his gift to resolve a number of the issues we face. So come on, put your money where your mouth is and follow through, rather than play to the gallery with meaningless platitudes to a national newspaper.
The Government is sticking to its budget play, claiming they are growing the economy, while staring blindly into the teeth of rising unemployment, no investment, and inflationary increases that everyone seems able to see but our beloved leaders.