Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Government policies on rural economies and high streets on the social and community value of pubs.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Pubs are at the heart of rural communities, supporting the local economy, providing a space for people to come together, and offering essential services. The Government is investing £440,000 with Pub is The Hub to help rural pubs diversify. Through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, we will also introduce a new community right to buy to empower communities to bring valued assets such as pubs into community ownership and protect them for future use.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential cumulative impact of business rates, minimum wage increases, VAT, energy costs and alcohol duty on the viability of small and independently owned pubs.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important contribution that small and independently owned pubs make to local communities, the high street and the wider economy. The potential impacts of changes on this sector are carefully considered as part of policy development.
Where changes are made, relevant impact notes and assessments are published at fiscal events and otherwise as necessary, in line with the Government’s usual practice. The Treasury also engages regularly with the pub and wider hospitality sector to understand the challenges they face.
The Government continues to provide targeted support to the pub sector through the tax system and other policies, and keeps all areas of the tax system under review, with future decisions taken at fiscal events under the normal process.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of business rates revaluation on village pubs and hospitality venues in rural areas.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion, to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
From April, every pub will also get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years.
Three-quarters of pubs will see bills flat or falling in April. The new relief is worth £1,650 for the average pub next year. As a sector pubs will pay 8% less in business rates in 2029 than they do right now.
Rural Rate Relief also continues to be available for key amenities and community assets in rural areas. It provides 100% rate relief for properties that are based in eligible rural areas with populations below 3,000.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on employment opportunities for young people in the hospitality sector; and how he plans to ensure that restrictions on zero-hours contracts and flexible working do not lead to reduced staffing levels and fewer entry-level roles in pubs and similar businesses.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government published a comprehensive assessment that shows young workers, typically disproportionately represented in low-paid, low quality and insecure jobs will be amongst the largest beneficiaries of the Act.
We are changing legislation through the Act to make it more likely that flexible working requests are accepted where they are reasonable and feasible.
The Act does not prevent employers from hiring workers on zero hours contracts and workers will be able to remain on them if it suits their needs. We are committed to consulting fully with stakeholders, including within the hospitality sector, to determine the next level of policy detail, to be set in regulations.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104669 on Business Rates, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the increases in Rateable Values for (a) hotels and (b) pubs from the 2026 revaluation on the liability of those businesses for business rates from the BID levies.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Business Improvement District (BID) levies are set locally through ballot approved proposals and are not automatically affected by revaluations or new multipliers. Therefore, any adjustment is a matter for the individual BID under its governing arrangements.
The Government recognises the important role that BIDs play in improving the local trading environment in high streets and town centres. Through the Pride in Place strategy, the Government has committed to strengthening BIDs by modernising existing arrangements, raising standards, and granting new powers for the establishment of property owner BIDs throughout England.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment she has made of the potential impact of alcohol duty policy on on-trade venues such as pubs, with off-trade alcohol sales in supermarkets.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The importance of the 'on-trade' is recognised in the alcohol duty system via Draught Relief, which ensures eligible products served on draught pay less duty than their packaged equivalents. The Chancellor significantly increased the generosity of this relief at Autumn Budget 2024, taking a penny of duty off a typical strength pint and reducing overall duty receipts by £85m. Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in tax than their packaged equivalents – a 50% increase on the draught discount under the previous government (9.2%).
At Autumn Budget 2025, the Chancellor confirmed that alcohol duty would be uprated on 1 February 2026 to maintain its real-terms value. The government does not expect this to have any significant impact on competition between the on- and off-trades.
An assessment of the impacts of the inflation-linked uprating at the most recent Budget is published within the Tax Impact and Information Note (TIIN) here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-duty-rates-change/alcohol-duty-uprating#summary-of-impacts.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support small pub landlords.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We regularly meet with pub landlords and only last week we held a roundtable with the British Institute for Innkeeping and some of their members.
We are taking decisive action to support pubs and recently announced an additional 15% cut for pubs on top of the permanent reduction in the business rates multiplier for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties announced at the budget. We are also providing £4.3 billion over three years to protect ratepayers from sharp rises in rateable values as well as launching a review of how pubs and hotels are valued for business rates.
Alongside this, we have doubled the Hospitality Support Fund to £10 million and will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy later this year to help reinvigorate our communities.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to meet small pub landlords to discuss potential closures and job losses within the hospitality sector.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We regularly meet with pub landlords and only last week we held a roundtable with the British Institute for Innkeeping and some of their members.
We are taking decisive action to support pubs and recently announced an additional 15% cut for pubs on top of the permanent reduction in the business rates multiplier for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties announced at the budget. We are also providing £4.3 billion over three years to protect ratepayers from sharp rises in rateable values as well as launching a review of how pubs and hotels are valued for business rates.
Alongside this, we have doubled the Hospitality Support Fund to £10 million and will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy later this year to help reinvigorate our communities.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Greater London Authority supplementary business rate arising from increases in Rateable Values from the 2026 business rates revaluation on the business rates of medium-size pubs in London in 2026-27.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Greater London Authority currently levies a Business Rates Supplement (BRS) to fund the costs of the Crossrail project (renamed Elizabeth line in 2016). The Mayor of London approved the Crossrail Business Rate Supplement policies for 2026-27 via a formal decision published on 16 January 2026, increasing the rateable value threshold above which the BRS applies from £75,000 to £92,000 from 1 April 2026 in line with average percentage increase in rateable values. In line with the requirements of the Crossrail BRS final prospectus published when the supplement was introduced in 2010-11, the Mayor is required to increase the threshold in line with the average change in rateable values in London at each revaluation. The intent of this threshold increase is to ensure that the total number of ratepayers liable to pay the BRS remains broadly unchanged each year.
On 27 January the government announced that for 2026/27 it was providing a further 15% business rates relief to pubs and live music venues on top of the support already announced at the Budget. Where business rate reliefs are implemented under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, such as the Pubs and Live Music Venues Relief Scheme, Business Rates Supplements are adjusted to reflect the percentage relief provided by those schemes in line with the requirements of section 13(7) of the Business Rates Supplement Act 2009. It is for the 33 London billing authorities and the Greater London Authority to ensure that the required determinations and resulting adjustments are made to ratepayer bills in respect of BRS liabilities.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has conducted a comparative assessment of the potential impact of (a) VAT rates on food and drink served in pubs compared with (b) VAT rates applied in comparable European countries.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the significant contribution made by pubs to economic growth and social life in the UK.
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Reduced rates of VAT come at a significant cost to the Exchequer, reduce the revenue available for vital public services, and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.
HMRC estimates that the cost of reducing the 20 per cent standard rate of VAT on all accommodation and food and beverage services would be as follows in 2026-27: (a) to 15%: £5 billion, (b) to 12.5%: £8 billion (c) to 10%: £10.5 billion, (d) to 5%: £17 billion, (e) to 0%: £23.5 billion.
The Government is aware that some European countries apply reduced VAT rates to hospitality, reflecting different tax systems and policy choices. The Government keeps all taxes under review, with decisions on VAT rates taken by the Chancellor at fiscal events.