A pub landlord has slammed Rachel Reeves for attacking the hospitality sector "from all angles" and called for a "full U-turn" in business rate hikes. Luke Honeychurch has warned the Chancellor that a spate of tax rises has "removed the light at the end of the tunnel" for businesses like his Gloucestershire pub, The Hog. The Treasury is understood to be preparing a support package for the pub industry following outcry over the impact of the major business rate hikes – but Mr Honeychurch, whose tax bill has risen by £712 a month, wants more drastic change.
The partial backtracking has followed a tough few months for the sector amid rise in employer's national insurance and the minimum wage – with one pub closing per day in 2025. Addressing Ms Reeves, Mr Honeychurch said: "The expectation within the hospitality industry was that you would give us a glimmer of hope. Not only was that not in the Budget, it went completely the opposite way."
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"You have more than doubled the 'rateable value' of my pub – the measure of how much it is worth, which is used to calculate business rates," he wrote in The Telegraph.
"Even though you have lowered the multiplier applied to this, our tax bill is a whopping £712 more per month, despite a fancy headline stating business rates are dropping. It feels very sneaky."
Mr Honeychurch said the economic situation facing UK landlords is "harder" than during the Coronavirus pandemic because "back then, customers had more money in their pocket [and] there was some financial support coming from the government".
Dismissing the prospect of a support package, he said nothing short of a "full U-turn" would prevent him shutting The Hog's doors in April, when the business rate hikes come into force.
"The government has shot itself in the foot," he added. "You've taken a sector that traditionally you could just keep whipping, but this has forced us to mobilise.
"You have attacked us from all angles when we were already struggling. But we're going to be in a much stronger position to fight from now on."
Figures from UKHospitality suggest that pubs in England face an average increase in business rates of 76% by 2030.
The rise is due to a combination of properties being revalued and the withdrawal of Covid-era discounts announced by Ms Reeves in her November Budget.
Ministers previously put in place a £4.3billion fund to help pubs with the transition to higher rates, but sources said the Chancellor would announce additional support including further business rates relief and measures to cut licensing red tape.