Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to support the (a) hospitality and (b) pub sector in rural areas.

On 4 April 2025, the Government announced the Licensing Policy Taskforce, which is currently working intensely with the industry to ensure licensing conditions for businesses within the sector – such as pubs, restaurants, and music venues – are proportional. The Taskforce is sharing its findings with the Government and aims to update publicly by the summer.

Delivering on our manifesto pledge, we will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. In the meantime, we have 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.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor also announced a duty cut on qualifying draught products – approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This represents an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year. This reduction increased the relief available on draught products to 13.9%.

The hospitality sector is predominately made up of smaller businesses. The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all next year. More than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package and eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.

The Government has funded a wide range of community assets, including pubs, through the Community Ownership Fund. On 23 December 2024, this Government announced the outcome of Round 4 of the Community Ownership Fund, the largest ever round to date. The Government also provides 100 per cent business rates relief for properties that are based in eligible rural areas with populations below 3,000. To be eligible, the business must be the only public house and have a rateable value of up to £12,500.