Rachel Reeves was asked whether she was willing to sacrifice shops, restaurants, and pharmacies to save pubs in the upcoming business rate guillotine:
“During the pandemic quite rightly a lot of temporary support was given to the hospitality sector particularly to pubs because they were closed. That’s not same for the whole economy and not the same for the whole high streets. Many shops were able to stay open during the pandemic and so their valuations stayed pretty steady but the valuations of pubs collapsed and as a result their business rates payable fell. In our business rates review, we have permanently reduced the business rate tax for our high streets and for smaller businesses.
But as that temporary relief comes to an end, although we are putting £4.3 billion of temporary support in and as those valuations have risen, the tax paid on business rates for some pubs is going up. And that’s why I’ve said working with the industry that we are working on additional support for those businesses. But if you are putting in support, you’ve got to find the money somewhere else.
We already put up taxes significantly in the two budgets to steady our public finances which has enabled interest rates to come down six times. So we’re working with the hospitality sector. I’ve been very clear that there is a package to come on top of what we’ve already done for pubs and we’ll be announcing that in the days ahead.“
Let alone Reeves’ anodyne point about shops hospitality is not just pubs and in-person retail. The tax ratchet is hitting everyone…
