Dear Chancellor,

Please support pubs in the budget.

We are writing to the Government again about the need for policies to support and save pubs and asking you as Chancellor to take action – the right action – in the forthcoming Budget to deliver the Prime

Minister’s commitment to help pubs through the cost-of-living crisis. We have raised all these issues previously – and we are writing again hoping that you will act.

The need for support is urgent and immediate. Pubs face a ‘perfect storm’ of rising costs, rising prices and unreasonably high Government taxes. Please be clear, this is absolutely not asking you and the

Government to give ‘tax breaks’ to the pub sector: This is about urging you to understand that the current raft of taxes on pubs – business rates, VAT, Employer’s National Insurance – is taking an unfair amount from pubs turnovers, which very simply is making it difficult or impossible for many pubs and publicans to make any profit, never mind make a living. We are supporters of the wider campaign for fairer VAT and to replace business rates with a fairer system.