Pubs, politics and power: why hospitality support isn’t equal

Pubs have once again found themselves at the centre of government hospitality policy. From targeted business rates discounts to a real-terms freeze on bills, the government has stepped in to soften the impact of the 2026 revaluation for one of the UK’s most culturally visible industries.

Across the wider hospitality sector, that intervention has been broadly welcomed but it has also raised uncomfortable questions. While pubs receive bespoke protection, cafés, restaurants, hotels, bars and night-time venues face rising costs with far less insulation. For many operators, the concern is not that pubs are being supported, but that government policy is becoming increasingly selective, risking distortion across an already fragile sector.

Targeted relief, selective consequences

The immediate trigger for industry debate is the government’s emergency business rates support package for pubs and live music venues. Analysis by global tax firm Ryan shows the measures will cut the bill for an average pub by more than £12,500 over the three years of the 2026 revaluation.

For many pub operators, the relief is tangible. Despite a sharp increase in rateable values, average pub bills are now expected to fall from April 2026 and remain broadly flat in real terms until the next revaluation. At a time when operators face continued pressure from labour costs, utilities and consumer price sensitivity, that intervention has been framed as a vital lifeline.

Yet the response across hospitality has been more ambivalent. The measures have underlined the government’s willingness to intervene decisively, if only for a narrow slice of the sector.

The mechanics of the package offered to publicans are complex, combining lower Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multipliers, transitional relief caps and a new 15% discount for eligible pubs and live music venues in 2026/27. This is followed by a real-terms freeze on core business rates bills in 2027/28 and 2028/29.

Taken together, these layers significantly blunt the impact of revaluation-driven increases. Ryan’s analysis shows that for an illustrative average pub, the measures reduce the core business rates bill from around £10,655 to £9,056 in 2026/27, which spells an immediate saving of almost £1,600. By preventing compounding increases under transitional relief, savings rise to more than £6,500 by 2028/29.

By flattening business rates over the next three years, the government has effectively shielded pubs from the worst of the revaluation shock.

Alex Probyn, practice leader for Europe and Asia-Pacific property tax at Ryan, says the intervention “makes a real difference to cash exposure for pubs, particularly in years two and three, when transitional relief phasing would otherwise drive further step-ups in bills”.

For all intents and purposes, the outcome is broadly favourable for most eligible pubs until the 2029 revaluation even if the system remains difficult to explain and administer in practice.

Why pubs still win political backing

Pubs’ ability to secure such targeted support reflects more than economic data alone, and that’s because few hospitality businesses carry the same symbolic weight in political discourse. Pubs have routinely been framed as anchors of community life, particularly in towns, villages and suburban high streets. Their decline over a span of some 15 years is often presented not just as a commercial failure but as a social one. This narrative also happened to resonate strongly with voters and, by extension, policymakers.

Kevin Georgel, chief executive of St Austell Brewery, argues that public sentiment has played a significant role. “The government has engaged with our trade bodies and heard the voice of the British public, who so clearly recognise and value the enormous economic, social and cultural contribution of our pubs.”

Georgel believes that that visibility gives pubs a political advantage that other parts of hospitality struggle to match. While restaurants, hotels and venues may employ thousands and drive tourism, their challenges are less easily condensed into a symbol of national decline.

However, even within the pub sector, there is little sense that the current package represents a long-term solution.

Laura Madeley, director and head of hospitality and leisure at accountancy firm Menzies, says the measures fall short of what many had hoped for. “While some recognition of the struggling pub sector is welcome, the £1,650 saving for the average pub certainly falls short,” she says, noting that nearly 7,000 pubs have closed since 2010.

“The 15% reduction and two-year freeze will provide short-term relief, but without meaningful business rates reform, the fear is that this trend will continue,” she adds.

Crucially, Madeley highlights that pubs’ relief has come without equivalent measures for other hospitality businesses facing the same pressures — a theme echoed across the sector.

Restaurants, cafés and hotels have largely been excluded from the additional support, despite rising rateable values and sustained cost inflation. For many operators, the sense of frustration stems from the perception that hospitality’s challenges are being addressed piecemeal rather than strategically.

Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, says the cost crisis facing the sector is universal. “The rising cost of doing business and business rates increases is a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution,” she says.

While Nicholls welcomes the government’s recognition of pressures facing pubs, she warns that restaurants and hotels remain under severe strain following successive Budgets. Without substantive solutions, she argues, businesses will face increasingly difficult decisions around viability, jobs and consumer pricing.

Where the real business rates shock now sits

One of the strongest criticisms of the current approach is that it does not align with where the most severe revaluation shocks are actually landing.

Analysis of the draft 2026 rating list by Ryan shows that more than 20 hospitality and leisure uses are facing average rateable value increases greater than those seen by pubs. While pubs are experiencing average uplifts of around 30%, other assets are seeing far steeper rises.

Arenas face increases of 142%, four-star and above hotels 97%, serviced apartments 71% and holiday centres 73%. Significant increases are also evident across theme parks, theatres, sports grounds and bowling alleys. While not viewed as traditional forms of food-led hospitality, entertainment has always gone hand in hand with the industry.

“These assets are capital-intensive, operate on fixed-cost models and have limited ability to absorb higher property taxes,” Probyn explains. “Transitional relief may slow bill increases, but it doesn’t reduce underlying rateable values, meaning liabilities can more than double over the next three years.”

Many of these venues are major regional employers and visitor attractions, raising concerns that higher business rates will ultimately feed through into job losses, curtailed investment and higher consumer prices.

The focus on pubs also risks obscuring a broader contraction in support for the high street as a whole. Ryan’s analysis shows that the current 40% RHL discount will cost the Exchequer £1.385bn in 2025/26. From April 2026, this will be replaced by lower RHL multipliers funded by a high-value surtax, raising £965m – a £420m reduction in year-on-year support.

Even with an additional £100m a year earmarked for pubs, the wider retail, hospitality and leisure sector remains around £320m worse off. In that context, pub support looks less like a generous expansion and more like a redistribution within a shrinking pot.

Government framing has further inflamed tensions. Responding to criticism in the House of Commons (14 January), chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested that pandemic-era support could not continue indefinitely.

However, industry experts argue that this misrepresents the origins of business rates relief. Retail and hospitality discounts were first introduced in 2018, well before Covid, in response to structural pressures such as declining footfall and rising fixed costs.

“Covid temporarily increased the level of support, but it didn’t create it,” Probyn says. “Framing this as the unwinding of a pandemic measure risks obscuring the deeper structural issues the discount was originally designed to address.”

For those representing the night-time economy, the selective nature of support is particularly concerning.

Pubs don’t operate in isolation; when support is selectively applied, the knock-on effects are felt across the entire hospitality ecosystem.

Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, says pubs, bars, clubs and venues operate as a single ecosystem. “To support one part while ignoring the rest is not just short-sighted, it is fundamentally disconnected from how this industry actually operates,” he argues.

Kill warns that sub-sector-specific interventions amount to “sticking plasters” on a much deeper problem, and risks accelerating closures elsewhere in the system.

The danger, industry leaders warn, is that continued prioritisation of pubs creates unintended consequences. Uneven cost pressures could distort competition, shift consumer demand and concentrate closures in unsupported parts of the sector.

Dan Maimone, head of global customer experience at hospitality employee experience platform Harri, notes that tackling business rates alone only solves part of the problem. “Any gains for pubs risk being consumed by rises to VAT on alcohol and other ongoing cost pressures,” he says.

More broadly, he points out that hospitality’s role as a major employer and economic anchor requires a more joined-up approach. “If the government is serious about protecting jobs and sustaining communities, support packages must reflect the realities facing the entire sector, not just isolated parts of it.”

For pubs, the latest intervention offers breathing room. For the rest of hospitality, it raises a more fundamental question: whether political visibility, rather than economic impact, is increasingly shaping who gets saved and who is left to struggle forth.