LBC reported Kerridge met with business secretary Peter Kyle where the chef-proprietor said he was presented a sheet of paper showing the new rateable value for the Michelin-starred gastropub, the Coach, that showed it had more than doubled from £50,500 to £106,000. The chef told LBC Kyle looked at the numbers with “concern and understanding”.
He went on to outline how all four pubs of his pubs will be hit by business rates uplifts of more than 100%.
Kerridge also told presenter Tom Swarbrick the transitional relief was “just softening the blow, it’s still killing you off in two to three years’ time, the packages that are helpful are only helpful for a short amount of time”.
Point of opening questioned
He explained the Butcher’s Tap & Grill, which is a “very small pub in the middle of Marlow” that serves burgers, fries and shows sport on TVs would face a giant leap in business rates from £50,000 to £124,000.
He explained: “It’s not Michelin-starred, its not generating huge revenues and if we weren’t in there, it’s the sort of pub and owner-landlord would live upstairs, come downstairs, work 70 hours a week, loving that kind of space... and will have a £74,000 increase in business rates.
“If you were the owner of that pub and you lived upstairs, that’s all of your wages gone. What’s the point in being open?”
Furthermore, Kerridge appeared on BBC programme Newsnight last night (Tuesday 6 January), and echoed the comments he made on LBC on business rates.
He said: “We have a percentage rise of around about 115% so business rates have doubled, which makes it completely unsustainable from a business perspective...
“It rips the heart and soul out of what pubs are. They’re spaces that create energy, they’re good, they’re great.”
Ban impact
Presenter Victoria Derbyshire also questioned Kerridge about whether the Labour MP ban many operators have implemented has made a difference.
He said: “I don’t know, I suppose it has made an impact on raising a voice and an opinion and that’s really important.
“It has been able to allow the smaller publican who hasn’t been invited onto Newsnight to be able to say actually I need to get my point across and this is what I’m doing.
“I would look at it in an opposite way, I would invite them in and sit them down and make them feel incredibly uncomfortable and put these figures in front of them.”
