Andy Burnham’s decision to cut business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues by 20 per cent has divided Independent readers, with many agreeing with Tom Kerridge that the saving is too small to make a real difference against soaring costs.
The new prime minister unveiled the policy this week as part of a wider push to ease the cost of living, promising nearly 32,000 hospitality businesses would benefit by an average of £1,100 a year.
But several readers pointed out that figure barely dents rising VAT, energy bills and business rates that have climbed steeply in recent years, with one comparing the gap to little more than a gesture.
Others were more positive, welcoming the move as a genuine lifeline for pubs at risk of closing, while some questioned whether Burnham’s flurry of early announcements amounts to serious policy or a bid to build trust after a bruising path to Downing Street.
Here’s what you had to say:
This will just keep them on life support
For many pubs, this will just keep them on life support for a while longer. Taking into account the increase in business rates last year and the NI changes their tax burden is still much higher. A welcome move, but doesn’t reverse the damage done.
Langley
This could save pubs
The plan to cut 20 per cent off business rates for pubs and a variety of clubs is a very welcome move and may well prevent them from being compelled to close their doors permanently. Removing the VAT element of cost from electricity will be helpful for everyone, especially those of us who are really struggling to make ends meet.
It really does seem that Andy Burnham is already starting to address some of the many issues that require urgent attention in this country. His pledge to end homelessness has been well received too and it would be wonderful if this plan can be achieved in the fullness of time. Andy Burnham may well have worked his way up the ranks as a ‘career politician’ which is the chosen path of them all, it seems to me, but he’s already striving to make a positive difference to the population of this country.
JanetC
Pubs provide a service beyond just alcohol
Good news. Locals are like community centres and welcome to most, book reading coffee drinkers, birthday celebrations, quiet pint and a bet, meeting up with friends, live music lovers, sport followers, general get-togethers and if they’ve got a beer garden, it’s a nice day, take a day off through the week and head over, feeling smug doesn’t cover it.
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Keep Pubs Open, they provide a service, somewhere to go if you need to forget stuff for a couple of hours or just need to be around people and it doesn’t have to mean alcohol.
leafspot
The customer won’t feel it
Nice gesture, but it won’t be passed to the customer, and it’s a 4 per cent cut in taxes – 20 per cent of 20 per cent that is – but at £7 a pint, and it literally being cheaper to drink out in Spain, Italy, Portugal, than it is to have a beer in your house in the UK, I will continue to order my beers from Amazon, and continue to spend all of my money abroad when I go on holiday to get the value from the labour I put in to get the money in the first place, we rarely go out in the UK because of the prices, it’s just not worth it, apart from Wetherspoons, sometimes.
Nicko
This is not good economics
This is not good economics. Pubs and hospitality businesses are low-productivity businesses. Continually giving them tax breaks preserves inefficient firms instead of encouraging investment and labour to move into more productive areas of the economy. For long-term growth, subsidies are not the answer. And it’s hard to believe these tax cuts will be paid for entirely by taxing vape shops and the like. More probably, the cost will fall on taxpayers or add to government borrowing. Not good.
Musil
Why demonise vape shops but not alcohol?
Whilst I am a big fan of pubs, clubs and bars, this demonising of vape shops is wrong and harmful. Proper, specialist vape shops have helped hundreds of thousands of people quit smoking and hugely benefited their communities. Alcohol is the most harmful drug in the country, leading to poor health, obesity, homelessness and violence, yet Labour’s message is that alcohol makes a huge contribution to the community while nicotine vapes, which reduce smoking, are a scourge. I’m connected to a specialist vape shop and have helped thousands of people quit – the answer is to licence shops and root out the dodgy sellers, not punish everyone.
AntAgain
Small gifts won’t build trust
It’s not at all surprising that people are sceptical about Burnham’s sprinkling of small gifts. Seems it’s going to be a little like an advent calendar for his first week – let’s see what token is in the box each day. He’s going to have to live with the lack of trust generated by his strategy for getting himself into the PM job. People judge you on what you do, not what you say – Burnham and allies like Streeting, Healey, Mahmood, Rayner et al have shown us their (lack of) character through a year of disloyal backstabbing. It is what it is and trust builds slowly. People are now looking for something deeper in terms of principled and strategic leadership for real growth and change. PR laden small gift giving isn’t going to cut it.
Pondering
Burnham is on the side of working people
As well as Burnham being on the side of working people, he’s also pro-business – Tom Kerridge’s business will still be £1,100 better off with this cut than without it, a bonus Starmer was never going to deliver. When Burnham was campaigning in Makerfield he was asking voters to trust a politics that’s often disappointed them. A PM has a choice whether to earn that trust through what they deliver, and Burnham has chosen to help with the cost of living, however small a step. Don’t knock the small stuff – it’s the small stuff that matters most to people, and hopefully there’ll be bigger stuff to come.
Amy
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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