Leaders of three of the UK’s largest pub chains have condemned the government’s plan to remove business rates relief next year while introducing lower multipliers for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, stating that taxes on the industry remain “ridiculously disproportionate.”
The bosses of JD Wetherspoon, Fuller’s and Greene King have urged the government to recognise the “ridiculously disproportionate” impact high business rates are having on the UK pub industry, ahead of the Treasury’s plans to remove the RHL rates relief scheme next year.
The scheme, which gives retail, hospitality and leisure firms a 40 percent discount up to £110,000, will come to an end in 2026 as the government introduces two lower multipliers for the sector, prompting the trio of CEOs to criticise what they see as a failure to support beleaguered pub businesses.
“If the Government continues to fail to deliver on business rates, not only will it increase pub closures… it really damages the viability of a sector that is absolutely critical to the UK economy,” Fuller’s CEO Simon Emeny told The Telegraph.
“The entire investability of the sector has been challenged by the actions of successive British governments over the last decade. Our sector carries a ridiculously disproportionate burden of the £25bn that’s currently raised from business rates. It’s long overdue that the Government found a fairer way of distributing this tax across the UK economy.”
JD Wetherspoon chair Tim Martin warned that higher business rates “will exacerbate the already ferocious tax disadvantage that pubs are currently labouring under, inevitably resulting in increased home consumption and less pubs.”
“It isn’t fair that the sector has 0.4 percent of the rateable property but pays 2.1 percent of the bills,” added Greene King CEO Nick Mackenzie.
“The sector is a massive employer and incredibly important for local communities, so we just feel it is important to underline how beneficial it is to tax pubs fairly.”
Pubs irate over business rates
Simon Emeny said… “If the Government continues to fail to deliver on business rates, not only will it increase pub closures… it really damages the viability of a sector that is absolutely critical to the UK economy…
