Rachel Reeves to unveil £100m per year pub support package

The move comes amid growing backlash across hospitality to the government’s business rates revaluation including the wind down of Covid rates relief, which was first unveiled in the November budget and is set to come into effect in April.

It is understood that this package, which will be worth approximately £100m per year for pubs, is a temporary measure, and that any wider reform to the multiplier used to calculate rates currently would take longer to be reviewed and implemented.

This support package, which follows the highly publicised campaign by publicans to ban Labour MPs from their premises, are expected to be accompanied by plans to relaxing licensing rules for hospitality in the run-p to this summer’s World Cup.

Reeves will resist calls for rates relief to be widened across hospitality, despite growing outrage from restaurants and particularly hotels, which are set to be shoulder the steepest rates costs rises come April.  

Speaking at the World Economic Forum earlier this month, Reeves said “the situation the pubs face is different from other parts of the hospitality sector”.

Research from Colliers found that hotels could see rateable values spike as much as 250% and will be hit with an average increase in rateable value of 77% under current plans, compared to 29% for pubs and 14% for restaurants.