Pubs and music venues will receive a 15% business rates discount and a two-year freeze from April, but trade body UKHospitality warns the short-term relief must be followed by urgent action to tackle the sector’s rising costs.
Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: “We welcome the recognition by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the scale of the challenges facing the hospitality sector. They have listened to us about the acute cost challenges facing businesses, all of which is impacting business viability, jobs and consumer prices.
“The rising cost of doing business and business rates increases is a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution. The government’s immediate review of hospitality valuations going forward is clear recognition of this.
“The devil will be in the detail, but we need to see pace and urgency to deliver the reform desperately needed to reduce hospitality’s tax burden, drive demand, and protect jobs and growth. We will work with the government over the next six months to hold their feet to the fire to deliver this.
“This emergency announcement to provide additional funding is helpful to address an acute challenge facing pubs. The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive Budgets. They need to see substantive solutions that genuinely reduce their costs.
“Without that clear action, they will face increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices for consumers. Those are costs borne by us all, and I hope the government delivers on its promise to support the whole hospitality sector.”
