Dear Jeremy,

We are writing to you as Chancellor of the Exchequer, as publicans, the people who actually run the UK’s famous pubs.

We run pubs all over the UK.  We are the people who actually run pubs, as opposed to the large companies who own them - the global brewers and pubcos - whose interests are often very different from those of actual publicans and pubs.  Things are very tough for pubs at the moment and current Government measures are doing little to help.  We know from our publicans’ networks that there are many publicans who simply can’t continue the way things are, without some direct tax relief from your Government.

The current cost-of-living crisis, rising prices and inflated energy bills are making things extremely tough for pubs and has come straight after the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions that saw pubs unable to trade and publicans unable to make a living for months. 500 pubs closed permanently last year. If you care about pubs, as you say you do, we urge you to listen and provide the direct support that we need, that WILL make a difference.

We urge you to support pubs all over the UK in the only simple, effective way that you can, which is to introduce a lower rate of VAT for ALL pub (and hospitality) sales. This is the only measure that you can take in the Budget that applies to all pubs in all parts of the UK. We also believe that the respective Governments all in four ‘home nations’ must do what they can to support and save pubs, including much needed business rate relief (which should be the same all over the UK), but it is only the UK Government than can deliver a direct tax cut for all UK pubs.

A VAT cut on all pub sales, to at least 10%, would make a very significant difference to our pubs and our ability to continue to trade and to employ staff. The cut must be on all pub sales and not just food/accommodation, or it would be hugely discriminatory against the thousands of important community pubs up and down the country that don’t serve food or offer overnight accommodation. In many cases, these are the pubs that are particularly struggling in the cost-of-living crisis and must not be excluded from the much needed direct support a VAT cut presents.

A cut on some sales only would also cause chaos with our till systems and accounting, with two different rates of VAT on the same bill. Only applying a VAT cut to food, overnight accommodation and soft drinks would be a big bonus to multinational fast food restaurant chains, big hotel chains and soft drinks manufacturers, but would not help thousands of important pubs.  Please therefore do the right thing and support all pubs with reduced VAT of 10% on all pub sales. 

Longer term, we urge the Government to look to introduce a lower rate of VAT for small, independent pubs.  This could be done via a ‘small retailers relief’ whereby small, independent pubs (and other outlets) would receive the highest level of VAT relief, ideally 5%, as has happened in other countries with a sliding scale up to full VAT for multinational fast food chains and pub chains. This would be the only way to ensure that taxpayers money goes to pubs and other small businesses that need it, not huge chains (as your beer duty changes have done).   

Support from a VAT cut on all pubs sales is supported by organisations including the Campaign for Pubs and the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) as well as individual pubs and publicans.  We urge you to start to listen to those of us who actually run pubs and the organisations who represent them. Up to now it is clear that you don’t understand the reality of the situation for pubs and for publicans and that you instead listen only to the lobbyists of the big brewers and pubcos.

The recent Treasury press release, claiming that the freeze on alcohol duty would save pubs, was simply nonsense, presumably propaganda fed to you by the big brewers and pubcos and their lobbyists. The reality of any duty freeze or cut is that it is millions – collectively hundreds of million of pounds – handed to global brewers and pubcos, some based offshore, some owned by investment funds. It is NOT passed on to pubs and make no difference at all to our businesses. 

Even Draught Duty Relief, which you and the Government highlight as something that directly helps pubs, in reality is worth tens of millions to the large brewers and makes no difference to pubs. Draught Duty Relief sees a reduction in duty of 4 pence per pint, whereas a reduction of VAT to 10% would see a reduction of 37 pence per pint and is provided direct to the pub, where the pint is actually being sold, not to the big brewers and pub owning companies, who in many cases don’t pass it on (and even where they do, it doesn’t bring down the price of a pint because of other rising costs). 

We therefore urge you to please listen to the people who actually run the nations pubs, as opposed to the big corporations. Our interests are not the same and if you care about pubs you will listen to the people who know them the most – us.

This may well be your last budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer. We therefore urge you to take this opportunity to show that you care about the Great British pub, the people who run them, and the role they play in local economies and communities.

Yours sincerely,