Dear Chancellor,

Pubs urgently need support – please deliver this in the Budget

We are writing on behalf of the Campaign for Pubs, urging you to understand and help alleviate the very difficult situation facing the UK’s pubs and publicans (and also the UK’s small brewers). Pubs are important businesses employing thousands of people, as well as being vital to communities and to local economies and tourism.

The need for support is urgent and immediate. Pubs face a ‘perfect storm’ of rising costs, rising prices (which decreases customer spend) and unreasonably high Government taxes, as a result of your decision in last year’s Budget to impose three significant cost hikes this April: a huge cut to business rates relief, a major hike in Employers National Insurance contributions and a rise in the Minimum Wage. That Budget has itself caused pubs to close and publicans to lay off staff and reduce staff hours, the opposite of what is needed for pubs but also for the economy and your aspiration for growth.

We are already in the midst of a devastating pub closure crisis, currently driven especially by the escalating costs and taxes, during a cost-of-living crisis. We have lost far too many pubs, many of them completely unnecessarily and some as a direct result of the decisions you made a year ago. Given the economic and cultural damage already done, it must now be a Government priority to support the pubs we thankfully still have, serving communities and the economy and employing thousands of people.