Business Rates
We provide essential coverage of business rates policy and reform, and how it impacts operators across the UK foodservice and hospitality sector. From government relief schemes and revaluation updates to lobbying efforts led by UKHospitality and industry coalitions, this captures the key developments influencing site viability and cost pressures. Whether you run a single high-street restaurant or oversee a multi-site pub or catering group, we explain how changes to the business rates system affect your bottom line, and what you need to know to plan ahead.
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Oct- 2018 -29 OctoberBusiness
Profits at top 100 UK restaurant groups plunge 80% to £37m in a year
The total pre-tax profits at the UK’s top 100 restaurants have plummeted by 80% in the last year to £37m, down from £194m 12 months ago according to accounting firm UHY Hacker Young. The drop means that pre-tax profits at the UK’s top 100 restaurant groups have fallen 89% from…
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17 OctoberPubs and Bars
Hospitality sector ‘faces £113m business rates hike next April’
UKHospitality (UKH) is warning that a large part of the UK economy, including hotels, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and cafes, face a £113m business rates bombshell. The inflation figures are used to set the annual increase in business rates, and analysis by UKH shows that “thousands of businesses” will be hit…
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Sep- 2018 -5 SeptemberAdvice
Taking a proposition from ‘meh’ to ‘yeah’
During the reign of casual dining brands, reliability, know-what-you’re-getting and crowd-pleasing cuisine kept the average consumer happy. Branded Italian concepts were as ubiquitous as they were successful. Being ‘okay’ was genuinely good enough; Pragma worked with F&B clients achieving mostly seven or eight out of 10 as an advocacy score,…
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4 SeptemberBusiness
Casual dining brands show growth despite high street woes
Casual dining has continued to grow with visits up 7%, latest figures from global information company The NPD Group have shown. The firm said many operators – especially newer, challenger brands – are continuing to focus on expansion despite high-profile closures and restructuring that some have described as the ‘Casual…
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Aug- 2018 -29 AugustBusiness
Bailiffs visited more than 200 firms daily over unpaid business rates
In the first year after the new business rates revaluation came into effect, councils sent bailiffs to more than 200 commercial properties everyday for unpaid rates. An investigation by real estate advisor Altus Group revealed that during 2017/18, over 81,000 business premises liable for rates were referred to bailiffs to…
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17 AugustBusiness
Business rates for English hospitality firms could rise to £50m, analysts say
Business rates for English hospitality companies could increase to £51.26m next April if inflation remains unchanged at 2.5%, according to real estate advisor Altus Group. Altus Group said next month could be “pivotal for the hospitality sector” as the upcoming Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation determines how business…
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10 AugustBusiness
Villandry restaurant fails to find investor leading to closure of all London restaurants
Villandry has announced it has closed all of its London restaurants after it failed to find a buyer and rent doubled at the two sites. BDO were called in as administrators for the company after it failed to find investors to support rising rent and business rates. The chain’s outlet…
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7 AugustBeverages
CAMRA: ‘Pub closures are making us all poorer’
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has said that UK pub closures are “making us all poorer” claiming that four out of five people in the UK have experienced a local pub closure in the last five years. As many as 80% of British people have witnessed at least one…
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7 AugustBeverages
Majority of Brits find the price of a pint ‘unaffordable’
Some 56% of people in Britain think the price of a pint of beer in a pub is unaffordable, according to new research by YouGov and Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). Pub pint prices have seen an increase, with a third of the cost of a pint now made up…
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2 AugustFeatures
Cutting a bigger slice of cake: growth in the catering industry
The catering industry is thriving in the UK. According to data from IBISWorld – a specialist in business information and market research – revenue for the catering services market sits at £1bn and it has experienced an annual growth of 1% since 2013, with a current workforce of approximately 28,600.…
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