‘Labour should call time on the unfair system that is hurting pubs’

These past two weeks have been full of deja vu for me. Exactly five years ago I was running a pub in the middle of the Covid crisis and I watched Michael Gove on TV giving interviews about scotch eggs and substantial meals. Overnight the media became experts on the difference between wet-led pubs and dry-led pubs.

Friends and customers thought that I’d be happy that problems I was facing were getting oxygen. Of course, in reality I was facing multiple issues trying to keep going knowing that another closure was likely. The circus of media interviews did nothing to help address all of those issues.

A quick search of the Labour List archive shows the articles I wrote documenting my story. The end of my business came through a combination of rising energy prices and an increase in rent which made the business completely unviable, issues that should and could have been addressed.

READ MORE: ‘Britain’s high streets need Community Investment Zones’

Fast forward to my reaction to this year’s budget. Rachel Reeves announced changes to the multiplier for business rates, one part of the calculation for the final business rates bill. There was also an announcement of some support with transitional reliefs as the covid era discounts are phased out. These changes were not as generous as some hoped they would be. 

This was overshadowed though by the announcement for the new assessment by the Valuations Office Agency of the rateable values of businesses, the figure to which the multiplier is applied. This showed an average increase in the rateable values of pubs and an average increase that was much higher than other business types.

Yet again the media has become overnight experts and are drawing on stories where the rateable value has rocketed, with examples where it has tripled.

All the transitional relief in the world means nothing if your pub is valued using a methodology which is unfair. These are businesses that are struggling, affected by economic issues like rising employment costs and food price inflation. 

The crux of the recent issue is the way in which rateable values are calculated for pubs. The Valuation Office Agency uses figures to work out what is known as the Fair Maintainable Turnover (FMT), so the rateable value is not based on any objective analysis of the building, but essentially by how much the business has sold. If you run an exceptional business and put in all the hours to increase the trade, then you will see rises in your rateable value. It is inherently unfair, ignores other issues that you might have making profit and incomparable to other types of business. 

Pubs can challenge their rateable value calculation, but previous experience of trying to do this makes many      sceptical that this will be successful. It’s a process that those running pubs need to have faith in so we can start towards a fair valuation system.

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The issues facing pubs are complex and can appear opaque. Issues facing individuals will never be covered accurately on a Breakfast TV sofa, but if we are to help publicans and keep our community pubs alive then it is exactly this sort of analysis that needs to be done by those people whose livelihoods are affected so there are no more surprises.

The issue of FMT calculations for rateable values has existed for decades. It is one that I’ve tried to raise before, but it was deemed not important enough, or a special case that didn’t warrant further action. Yet we have seen the result of not getting involved and getting into the nitty gritty details of what makes a pub profitable or unprofitable, and the reasons why they are closing.

The industry is complex, there are thousands of pubs in the UK, each with their own specific issues. Leases, tenancies, freehouses, wet pubs, destination venues, community pubs, chains, pubcos, rural pubs, city centre pubs. Each of these will have their own needs and difficulties, which will never be easily summarised for media consumption.

For example, The Pubs Code Adjudicators report for 2025 shows worrying levels of satisfaction among tied tenants. Only 59% of tenants interviewed are satisfied with their current agreement and only 45% are satisfied with how their pub company deals with maintenance. Both of these issues are incredibly important to the profitability and sustainability of a tenanted pub and should be legal rights for the tenant. 

Other economic issues include whether cuts in beer duty, a producer tax, get passed onto pubs, and ultimately the consumer and the differential effects of changes to the cost of employment. Understanding these issues would enable us to act on them to remove the unfairness and protect the pubs that people value.

Not since the Beer Orders report of the late 80s has there been a full independent analysis of how the beer trade works and what can be done to actually support pubs, rather than generate a headline. 

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While I may have been transported back five years to a time when pressing issues I was facing did not get any action, there is now one important difference. We now have a Labour government with Labour values at its heart. Supporting the community pubs that so many people value means getting involved with the hard-working people that run them.

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