The Campaign for Pubs has written an open letter to Rishi Sunak, urging him and the government to urgently support pubs or be responsible for mass closures, job losses and hardship.
The letter expresses publicans’ dismay at the woeful lack of support from the chancellor in his economic statement on Thursday, and points out that without further help, many pubs now face imminent closure under government-imposed restrictions.
Many publicans are now considering whether to close their pubs and either mothball them until after the restrictions end, or to simply walk away altogether, says the campaign, especially with many still facing large rent bills from intransigent pubcos and commercial landlords.
The letter explains how, in the chancellor’s statement, thousands of pubs that don’t serve food were given no help or support whatsoever. It also points out that the new job support scheme offers no help at all to most pubs, as on current trading figures many actually need more staff not fewer, and certainly could not afford to subsidise staff for not working.
The letter calls for:
- 5% (or even better, zero) VAT on all sales in pubs
- Grants to cover full costs if pubs cannot viably trade due to the current restrictions and have to close temporarily
- A business rates holiday extension, with a complete overhaul for business rates for pubs prior to recommencing
- A statutory right to an immediate rent review for all pubs, to tackle the fact many pubs are facing wholly unreasonable rent levels, considering the government restrictions and reduced trade
The letter ends: “So we are urging you to listen to the nation’s publicans — to meet with us and understand that we need urgent support now to get through the next six months. If you ignore us, you and the government will be responsible for the closure and loss of many important pubs up and down the country, as well as causing loss and hardship for publicans, pub staff and their families.”
‘Rishu Sunak has turned his back on the nation’s pubs’
Dawn Hopkins, vice-chair of the campaign, and licensee of the Rose, Norwich — a wet-led pub — said: “Britain’s publicans feel ignored and betrayed by Rishi Sunak and the government. We have spent the last three months working hard to make our pubs safe, and then the government imposes some frankly stupid rules that make everyone less safe, and decimate our trade.
“To do this without offering us support means that Rishi Sunak has turned his back on the nation’s pubs. He is telling us that he doesn’t care if we close, or how publicans pay their bills or feed their children.
“It is the government that is making many pubs unviable, through ill-considered non-evidence-based rules, and the government must compensate us for the amount of trade we will and are already losing.
“If Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson ignore us then they will go down in history as the men who destroyed the Great British pub, so we urge them to change course, look again at these destructive rules, and to either allow us to trade safely and viably as we were, or to properly support us.”
