Licensing Hours Extensions Bill

Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest Excerpts

Friday 24th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair and founder of Team Domenica.

When I joined your Lordships’ House, I vowed to speak only on things that I knew about, so your Lordships might be surprised to see me on my feet for this licensing Bill. However, in a few weeks’ time my charity is opening a pub in Brighton. This has required major investment for the acquisition, refurbishment and training facilities, funded by a combination of donations and a significant mortgage. It will give enhanced training opportunities for our candidates, in addition to our existing cafes and coffee roastery. When I asked Jeremy Clarkson for advice, his reply was succinct: “Don’t do it”. This was followed by a list of all the things that could and would go wrong.

Before I go into that, I would like to start by saying that I have no objection whatever to cutting the red tape and regulatory costs around opening hours, and I acknowledge that the Bill could be only a good thing for the industry. However, I have broader concerns.

My team are currently recruiting staff at all levels for the pub, and they have been flabbergasted by the hundreds of applications that they have received for every single job that we have advertised—and this is in Brighton, a city where hospitality is a major component of the economy. As recently as two years ago, hospitality venues were really struggling to fill vacancies. The impact of last year’s Budget is huge, and has been immediate, concentrated and socially regressive.

According to PAYE data published by the Office for National Statistics, 110,000 jobs have been lost in this sector between June 2024 and July 2025. Hospitality now employs 2.1 million people, and 60% of them are under 25. It is an entry level into work for young people, particularly those with no skills or qualifications, for those needing support into work, and for those people—such as our candidates—with learning disabilities, for whom a job can be life transforming. The new NIC threshold means an employer is paying tax on someone working seven to eight hours a week rather than 16 to 18 as previously. This has had a negative impact on an industry which largely relies on part-time workers and has caused pubs to slash jobs and decrease opening hours. I fear that the Employment Rights Bill coming down the track will make employing this cohort even more challenging, and the benefits bill will therefore increase on its alarming upward curve.

The Government need to start being serious about measures that will grow the economy and create jobs. They should reverse this threshold change and even take it higher than it was before the last Budget. In fact, UKHospitality lobbied for such a raise in the threshold before the last Budget to create jobs, and the Government did the opposite, without any consultation or impact assessment.

In its recent report, the Institute of Economic Affairs said:

“Employment and vacancies are down, working-age inactivity remains an apparently intractable problem, and unemployment continues its upward creep. Job losses are particularly noticeable in retailing and hospitality”.


A third of all minimum wage workers work in shops, bars and restaurants. This recent hike in employer national insurance contributions has brought many part-time workers into the Government’s net who were previously exempt.

Alan Vallance, the CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said last week that the country

“faces a damaging cliff edge if the Chancellor decides to raid businesses again”.

He said that businesses trying to deliver growth are being held back. Firms are telling him that it is

“too expensive to do business, with confidence in free-fall over skyrocketing operating costs amid high taxes, an outdated business rates system and soaring energy bills”.

UKHospitality has put forward several ideas and can demonstrate in each case what the real benefits would be to the economy and public finances. Here are a few of them. The first thing it suggests is to lower business rates to revive the high streets. Business rates are a sin tax on running community-based businesses. Our high streets and hospitality venues are a vital and economic resource.

The next suggestion is to fix NICs to boost jobs. Sectors such as hospitality, which provide accessible careers, have been hit hardest, as I just said. The impact on someone earning £25,000 a year was twice as bad as on someone earning £150,000, and the largest number of job losses have been in hospitality. Exemptions should include those at the start of their careers and people returning to work from welfare. I add to that list those with learning disabilities. This would support job creation and reduce the benefits bill.

The third suggestion is to cut VAT to drive investment. The EU average VAT rate on hospitality is between 10% and 13%. Last week, Ireland announced that it would cut its rate to 9%, yet in the UK we still pay the full 20%, making it so much harder for people to support their local businesses. UKHospitality is calling for a cut on VAT to the EU average, which would pay for itself over the course of the Parliament with higher tax receipts.

As the noble Lord, Lord Watson, said, the social and community importance of bars and pubs cannot be overestimated. Pubs are the centre of our communities, yet increasingly, people are drinking at home because they can no longer afford the price of a pint. As one person in the business said to me, 1p off a pint was a very unfunny joke. Our duty on alcohol is the second highest in Europe, topped only by Finland’s. People need to meet face to face, to feel a sense of belonging and connection. Hospitality venues are not just in towns and cities but in rural communities. They are the heartbeat of those communities, as the noble Lord, Lord Watson said, but, frankly, they need resuscitation. The isolation that rural communities feel—particularly farming communities, which are under so much pressure at the moment—is a very real issue, and pubs in the country are closing at an alarming rate.

The Government should now recognise the importance of this sector for economic growth, wealth creation, responsible consumption, social integration, community connection and cultural richness, and throw their weight behind this industry. The British Beer and Pub Association has estimated that 375 pubs will close before the end of this year in England, Wales and Scotland. Our Prime Minister has said that he wants to

“bring the buzz back to Britain’s boozers”.

He has got that the wrong way round. Bring the boozers back, and perhaps the buzz will follow.

As I said at the beginning, I am in not in any way against this Bill, but giving pubs the ability to trade later will not be any help with all the issues they face. Many of them can no longer afford to open every day, let alone late at night.

Let me end with an extract from Jeremy Clarkson’s email:

“When you step into a pub that you are running, you immediately notice the broken light bulb and the wonky loo roll dispenser and the cockeyed picture. And as there’s no money in hospitality these days, you can’t afford to get someone in to put everything right. You must do it yourself. And then, while you are doing it, a food allergy enthusiast will claim they saw a potato which has made them go blind and then the guy who you employ to clean the lavatories after the pub shuts will phone in sick so you’ll have to do that too. It’s relentless. But … there will come a time when everyone sits down after work and has a drink and a sausage roll and all of a sudden it’ll make sense. And it’ll especially make sense for you because you’re doing it for a very good reason”.


That very good reason is why I am speaking on this subject today. We have called our pub the North Star, as we guide our candidates into work and are constantly there for them when they embark on their journeys into employment.

Meanwhile, I will fight as hard as I can to ensure that the hospitality business can thrive again, not just for our candidates and their prospects but for all of us in our communities. Pubs are a quintessential symbol of Britishness, and it is our patriotic duty to keep them open and affordable, both for those who run them and for those who drop in for a drink, a meal and a conversation. Above all, none of us wants to hear for a final time that always unpopular phrase, “Last orders, please.”