Dear Chancellor,

Pub rents – your comments on the Andrew Marr Show

We are writing following your appearance on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One yesterday, Sunday 28th February and your comments regarding ‘average’ rents of pubs and restaurants.

On the show you stated that the average rent payable by a typical pub was in the region of £14,000- £20,000 a year. It appeared, given the context of the conversation, that you made this comment to seek to show that the level of support the Government has provided to pubs has been sufficient.

The figures quoted by you as an average, have sparked disbelief amongst the nation’s tenant publicans, and also within the wider hospitality sector, as they represent a gross underestimate of the rent paid by most pubs and restaurants up and down the country, many of which pay hugely higher annual sums. It is simply impossible that the average can be anywhere near as low as the figures you quoted.

Can you confirm where you received this quoted information from? We believe it to be wildly inaccurate. From our own research, direct from a large number of UK publicans, the lowest rent reported was £21,000 and the average appears to be around £39,000. This would certainly be in keeping with the 2017 RICS benchmarking figures which placed the national average at £37,691…