Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday (Wednesday 3 September) confirmed the 2025 Autumn Budget will take place on Wednesday 26 November, pledging in a video statement to “fix the foundations” of the economy while keeping a “tight grip” on day-to-day spending.
But operators told The Morning Advertiser (The MA) after years of rising costs pubs need urgent support on VAT, business rates, beer duty and National Insurance (NI) to survive.
Emma Gibbon, who runs the Plough in Prestbury and the Hewlett Arms in Cheltenham, joined the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) at Parliament this week to raise these raise key issues with Ministers from the Department for Work and Trade.
She told The MA: “We were able to ask for three main areas to be looked at in the next Budget in order to help pubs not only to survive but to grow.
“For us it was clear the main and most immediate form of help should be a hospitality specific VAT rate, as they have in most of Europe.”
Business rates was another issue Gibbon urged Ministers to tackle: “The business rate discount was reduced from 75%- 40% in the last Budget, however we were promised a reform in rates.
Meaningful review
“We would like to see a meaningful review of business rates and fairer taxation for bricks and mortar businesses.”
Elsewhere, owner of the Dog at Wingham in Canterbury, Marc Bridgen, also stressed the need for a reduction in VAT for hospitality businesses, adding 10% would be a reasonable discount.
In addition, the Top 50 Gastropub operator said the rise to employer NIC “really hurt” firms across the sector, stating his pub has had to find an additional £3,500 a month to cover the cost.
Though for Brendan Padfield, owner of Top 50 Gastropub the Unruly Pig in Bromeswell, Suffolk, overall consistency from the Government was the most crucial thing needed from the Budget.
“The Government has always said that growth is key to be able to pay for the public sector, yet they hammered small businesses, killing growth and jobs,” Padfield said.
“A coherent budget that is not going to spook the markets and one is going to contain inflation is much needed.
“Only then will borrowing and interest rates reduce. And both of those things need to happen if confidence is to return so the great British public feel able to visit the pub and spend even more.”
Licensee of the Murderers/Gardeners Arms in Norwich, Philip Cutter, added the sector has been “at a crossroads” with the Government since last year’s Budget, which he described as a “massive disappointment”.
He told The MA: “The reduction on 1p on a pint has done nothing to reduce the avalanche of venue closures since April’s budget. NIC increases, business rates increases and minimum wages rises have all contributed to lost profitability and jobs - so a new approach to hospitality needs to be the way forward.
Drastic overhaul
“Reducing VAT, NIC’s, beer duty and business rates, as has been promised now for decades, is essential.
“Sadly, while I don’t believe these will be increased, our pleas for reductions will fall on deaf ears - independently owned pubs are an easy ‘tax cow’.”
Another call for business rates reformation, owner of the Tamworth Tap in Staffordshire, George Greenaway, called for a “drastic overhaul of the current unfair system”.
Though he added any financial support for “faltering” hospitality businesses would be welcomed.
Ahead of the fiscal address, trade associations also called for more targeted support for the sector this week.
