The British Beer & Pub Association has today welcomed an announcement from Chancellor Sajid Javid that the Government will cut business rates for pubs.
The new pubs relief will be introduced in April, with £1,000 being taken off the business rates bills of small pubs who qualify.
Commenting on the announcement, Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said:
“Pubs are the heart of our communities, so this commitment to ease the burden of business rates is great news.
“On business rates alone, pubs pay 2.8% of the business rates bill, despite accounting for just 0.5% of turnover. Reducing rates for pubs is an important step in the right direction. Such reliefs are vital until the fundamentally unfair system is overhauled. However, some large pubs, and those that are subject to state aid restrictions, will be unable to claim this relief. Once the UK leaves the EU, the Government should look at reform of the state aid rules. It is also important local authorities work to ensure that these reliefs are as simple to claim as possible.
“Given that seven in ten alcoholic drinks sold in a pub are beer, the most direct way of helping all pubs is to cut beer duty.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
Breakdown of this relief
Pubs with an RV below £12,000 don’t pay business rates. This table compares the 50% saving against no saving, rather than the current 33% saving. The column highlighted in red is the saving due to this newly announced £1,000 relief with the 50% relief. This relief alongside the 50% relief would save the industry £133.8m. This relief alone saves the industry £23.4m.
BBPA numbers produced using Valuation Office Agency data.
All of this data is before the application of state aid rules.
The British Beer & Pub Association is the leading body representing Britain’s brewers and pub companies. The Association is more than a century old and was originally founded as the Brewers’ Society in 1904. Our members account for some 90 per cent of beer brewed in Britain today, and own around 20,000 of the nation’s pubs.