Overview
- Rachel Reeves said she is working intensely on a pub-focused relief package and signalled details will be unveiled in the coming days or weeks.
- Valuation Office Agency chief Jonathan Russell told MPs the Treasury received sector-level briefings, with about 5,100 pubs seeing rateable values roughly double and average pub valuations up around a third.
- Ministers are prioritising a pub-specific scheme, resisting calls to extend equivalent business-rates relief to the wider hospitality sector for now.
- November’s Budget cut the rates multiplier but phases out up-to-40% Covid-era relief for retail, leisure and hospitality from April, alongside a £4.3bn transitional fund running to 2029.
- Trade bodies warn more than 2,000 hospitality venues could shut in 2026 without broader help, citing typical pub bill increases of about £1,400 in year one and around £12,900 over three years, while some reports point to a not-yet-confirmed £300m pub package.