Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about pubs and beer duty.
Pubs make a vital contribution to our national life, not only as places of employment and economic activity, but as hubs of community and culture. We are lucky to have so many excellent examples locally, and I fully recognise their importance, particularly in rural and small-town areas like ours. Over the summer, I visited Sir William Peel Pub in Sandy, and it was a pleasure to meet all the brilliant members of staff.
I am concerned about the Government’s Business Rates Reform and its impact on local pubs and breweries. Despite Government MPs standing on a manifesto pledging to avoid raising tax on “working people”, at the 2024 Autumn Budget, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced £40 billion of tax increases, the largest in a generation. These tax rises included imposing a £25 billion tax on working people by increasing employers’ National Insurance. This hit the hospitality sector particularly hard, given its typically high staffing overheads. I signed a cross-party letter before this Budget, urging the Chancellor to rethink.
Now, at the 2025 Autumn Budget, the Chancellor has cut the discount rates for small businesses, hitting them with a new stealth tax. This budget risks pushing already pressurised pubs over the edge.
My colleagues in the Conservative Party and I want to make life easier for pubs. As announced by the Shadow Chancellor, Mel Stride, the Conservatives would scrap business rates for most high street businesses and pubs altogether. Nearly 250,000 businesses would benefit from the relief, delivering substantial savings that can then be reinvested in better premises, more staff and lower prices, and lifting thousands out of business rates altogether. The relief would be capped at £110,000 per business.
In recent years, the previous Government took action to protect the nation's hospitality venues. This included implementing the Brexit Pubs Guarantee and freezing alcohol duty at the Autumn Statement 2023 and Spring Budget 2024.
More widely, I welcome that alcohol duty on draught products was cut by 1 penny per average strength pint in February. I am, however, disappointed that alcohol duty on non-draught products has increased in line with inflation.
I understand that the Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) trade body has called on the Treasury to introduce a business rate carve-out to protect struggling pubs from closure, and I will be sure to follow any developments closely. I am proud of the last Government's record of supporting pubs and will continue to urge Ministers to address the challenges faced by the hospitality sector.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,
