London’s independent pub owners are joining forces to offer a discount and incentive scheme similar to Tastecard, offered by the restaurant industry.
Egil Johansen, owner of The Kenton pub, in Hackney
It comes as latest government figures show 50 pubs a month in England and Wales closed their doors for good in the first six months of 2024. In London, 25 pubs closed in the period.
The CityStack scheme encourages punters to visit and discover independent pubs they might not have thought of going to, by providing packs of beer mats offering £100 in savings for food and drinks. There is also a discovery map to help pub lovers create their own bar crawl adventures.
More than 60 independent pubs are already part of the scheme, with more pubs requesting to join each week.
Top concerns identified by independent publicans are:
The top concerns are:
- Soaring beer prices
- Rising property rents
- Business rates hikes
- Pay television sports channels subscription fee hikes
- Mortgage interest rate rises
- Energy bill hikes
- Beer garden smoking ban plans
Independent pub owners are nervously awaiting next week’s Budget, which could see property tax rises and additional business rate hikes announced.
“Our next rent review is in five years, and if it increases by the same amount (around 25%), that will definitely be the end for us,” said Egil Johansen, owner of The Kenton pub, in Hackney. “The massive increase in utility bills has been hard to swallow; that’s why we closed our kitchen in 2022.
“We are also suffering from rising mortgage interest rates and increasing beer prices. Even Sky Sports and TNT Sports are dramatically raising their subscription fees, which means we might have to stop showing football because of that.”
Alison Boutoille (pictured above), founder of CityStack, said: “Our independent pub owner members are extremely concerned about next week’s Budget, particularly about additional business rate hikes and the threat of higher property taxes.
“The decrease in revenues due to the cost of living crisis, which has led to lower footfall and people budgeting less towards going out, added to soaring bills, has led to a critical challenge for the survival of pubs all over the country.
“While big chains may be well equipped to weather the current economic situation, it’s much harder for independent businesses to keep themselves afloat, which is why we created this initiative. We urge people to go back to independent pubs before it’s too late.”
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