Review and support the continued operation of pubs to prevent more closures

Review ways to assist the hospitality industry and support our nations pubs before we lose any more.

We feel that without Government assistance, independent breweries and pubs cannot swallow the hikes in business rates, the living wage and rising operating costs.

We believe pubs are the backbone of our communities and vital in maintaining mental health and social interaction in many communities across the UK. In some cases, these are the only places that people have any kind of social contact. We feel that far too many have been lost over the last 30 years due to a lack of support for the industry and we simply cannot continue on this course. We believe that pubs are our history, our heritage and have been our way of life for hundreds of years.

Government recognises that hospitality businesses, including pubs, are not only central to our history and heritage but also play a crucial role in boosting local economies and bringing people together.

The hospitality sector continues to face real and sustained pressures, with rising costs and reduced demand placing strain on businesses. These challenges reflect wider economic conditions, and while the Government inherited a difficult fiscal position requiring tough decisions, it remains committed to supporting the sectors most affected.

That is why we are reforming business rates and intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that RHL businesses benefit from much-needed certainty and support. We also prevented RHL relief from ending in April 2025 by extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier. By extending the relief, the Government has saved the average pub, with a rateable value of £16,800, over £3,300.

We also reduced alcohol duty on qualifying draught products, representing an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year. To assist independent breweries, we’re currently assessing the beer market to determine whether there are any barriers preventing small brewers' from accessing pubs.

The Government has taken several difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability. One of the toughest decisions we took was to raise the rate of employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) from 13.8% to 15%, whilst reducing the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance (the Secondary Threshold) from £9,100 to £5,000. The hospitality sector is predominately made up of smaller businesses. The Government protected the smallest businesses from these changes by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.