Tue 27th Jan 2026 - UKHospitality: ‘emergency package for pubs welcome but restaurants and hotels will face increasingly tough decisions’ UKHospitality – ‘emergency package for pubs welcome but restaurants and hotels will face increasingly tough decisions’: UKHospitality has said while the government’s emergency package for pubs is welcome, restaurants and hotels will face “increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices”. Following pressure from the sector, the government has announced a “major package of support on business rates and licensing reform” for pubs, “recognising the challenges they face and important role they play in local communities”. Pubs will get a 15% cut to new business rates bills from April followed by a two-year real-terms freeze, as well as a review into the method used to value them for business rates. The review will be carried out by the government alongside businesses and valuation experts, ensuring that any decisions will be implemented for the 2029 revaluation. The chancellor also announced £10m of funding for the Hospitality Support Fund over three years – upped from £1.5m for one year announced last April – to support pubs across the UK. This aims to help over 1,000 pubs provide extra services for local communities, including creating community cafes, village stores and play areas to help pubs bring locals and families together and boost their footfall. It will also support people who are furthest from the labour market to move into jobs in hospitality. Downing Street also announced a new High Street Strategy, “to help ensure retail, leisure and hospitality businesses can thrive, as the bedrock of strong communities”. A government spokesman said: “Working alongside businesses and representatives, this cross-government strategy will be published later this year and will look at what more the government can do to support our high streets.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves, announcing the package, said: “If we’re going to restore the pride in our communities, we need our pubs and our high streets to thrive. We’re backing British pubs with additional support, and our new High Streets Strategy will help tackle the long-term challenges that our much-loved retail, leisure and hospitality businesses have faced. Thriving local businesses, bustling high streets and pride restored in our communities – that’s what this government is delivering.” Grassroots live music venues will also be included in the support package, meaning their new business rates bills will be cut by 15% from April and frozen in real terms for the following two years, while the government is also reviewing how hotels are valued for business rates following concerns expressed. “Hotels valuations are undertaken in a different way to some other sectors,” the spokesman said: “The methodology used is well established, but, as with pubs, specific concerns have been raised by stakeholders, and it is right to review how hotels are valued to ensure it accurately reflects the market for these sectors.” Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: “We welcome the recognition by the prime minister and the chancellor of the scale of the challenges facing the hospitality sector. They have listened to us about the acute cost challenges facing businesses, all of which is impacting business viability, jobs and consumer prices. The rising cost of doing business and business rates increases is a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution. The government’s immediate review of hospitality valuations going forward is clear recognition of this. The devil will be in the detail, but we need to see pace and urgency to deliver the reform desperately needed to reduce hospitality’s tax burden, drive demand, and protect jobs and growth. We will work with the government over the next six months to hold its feet to the fire to deliver this. This emergency announcement to provide additional funding is helpful to address an acute challenge facing pubs. The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive Budgets. They need to see substantive solutions that genuinely reduce their costs. Without that clear action, they will face increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices for consumers. Those are costs borne by us all, and I hope the government delivers on its promise to support the whole hospitality sector.”