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Hard-hit pub landlords have condemned Labour for treating their businesses like 'cash cows' as they fear Rachel Reeves' crippling tax raids will force them to close their doors for good.
The Chancellor's tax hikes last Autumn - including a major business rates setback for the UK hospitality sector - have left owners suffering 'sleepless nights' as they decide between permanent closure or financial ruin.
Pint prices have been ramped up, opening hours cut and staff laid off in desperate bids to make ends meet after hikes on business rates, National Insurance contributions and minimum wage following two punitive Labour budgets.
More than 5,000 pubs are facing the 'staggering' rise in business rates after their property tax valuations doubled, it emerged on Monday.
The head of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) told MPs that 13 per cent of pubs – a total of 5,100 – have been hit with a 100 per cent increase in their so-called 'rateable value' - used to calculate their business rates bill.
But the owners of one village pub in Uffington, Lincolnshire, are facing an even bigger rise after being slapped with a 2,000 per cent surge in their rates valuation.
Katie and James Genever, who run The Bertie Arms, said their rateable value will leap from £2,250 to £46,000 this year.
Mrs Genever, a former nurse, said the increase would almost certainly wipe out any profits their thatched village pub, which is grade II-listed, will make.
She told the Daily Mail: 'I really feel that hospitality as an industry has been persecuted and victimised by the government in the last few years. It's one thing after another thing after another.
Katie and James Genever (pictured) run The Bertie Arms in Uffington, Lincolnshire
The couple said their rateable value will leap from £2,250 to £46,000 this year
Dawn Hopkins (pictured), who owns the Rose Inn in Norwich, told the Mail she is struggling to stay afloat
The Rose Inn (pictured) in Norwich keeps being hit by rising costs, its owner said
'At the moment, we will just about keep our head above water for the next couple of years.'
The pub, owned by the couple since 2017, will pay business rates for the first time in April due to Reeves' tax raid on pubs, which will end the pandemic-era rates relief for hospitality businesses.
As things stand, Mr and Mrs Genever will see their rateable value increase from £2,250 to £46,000 this year.
Mr Genever said the increase would leave them paying £17,000 in rates from 2029 onwards.
She explained that this is the money needed to maintain the 1681 property, adding: 'We've done well with turnover, but the profits are minimal because we're raking it all back in to maintain the building.
'It's a grade II-listed thatched cottage, it's very small, we only have service for about 50 people, so we are constantly up against it to make the money.
'While we do turn over a very good amount of money now, it is certainly not profit - it is all being put back into the decor, the upkeep, and obviously the staff.'
To save the pub, Ms Reeves would have to follow through on plans for a major climbdown on the changes announced in the November Budget.
Mrs Genever said her pub also suffered after last year's April Budget, which saw significant increases to Employer National Insurance Contributions.
'With the National Insurance contributions, and the basic wage - the living wage going up across the board - a lot of our employees are part-time and under 18, and all of a sudden you're paying them 10, 12, 14 per cent pay rises. Just our wage costs last year to cover NI and the increase in living wage went up by £47,000,' she said.
Pub landlord Matt Blackwood (pictured), who is facing the possible closure of his pubs
The New Inn, which Mr Blackwood owns, fears revaluation could be the 'straw that breaks the camel's back' after losing £100,000 due to higher costs over the last three years
The rateable value of one of Mr Blackwood's two pubs, The Old Sun (pictured), has nearly quadrupled from £18,700 in the late 2010s
'I really strongly believe that if any of the MPs or members of the government had to run a small business, they would have gone bankrupt.
'We're a busy pub and we're worried, so these guys that aren't as busy and the guys that are tied to tenancies and lease pubs are in even more trouble.'
Landlords previously warned that punters may be charged more than £18 for a pint as a result of surging costs - with pubs across the country dropping like flies.
Dawn Hopkins, who owns the Rose Inn in Norwich, accused the government of a 'business rates betrayal' after the Chancellor announced she would lower rates for businesses in the hospitality sector - only for them to discover their bills would actually go up.
The landlord told the Mail: 'I absolutely adore my job. I couldn't think of doing anything better. But there comes a point where you put so much effort in, you put so many hours in, to not get anything back - to have to put your whole life savings into it, and to have to put pensions into it.
'It's extremely difficult at the moment for pubs in general [...] because we are just being squeezed so tightly with all the costs from rises in minimum wage, to National Insurance, all the utility rises - everything has risen for us.
'We had a business rates betrayal, basically, they told us they were going to reform business rates.
'So we were told we were going to have a reform, and what happened was totally the opposite.'
Ms Hopkins doesn't know what the future holds for her business, but she admitted questioning whether all the struggle is worth it.
Meanwhile, one Labour-supporting publican has vowed he will never vote for the party again while Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Reeves are at the helm, due to the enormous business rate hikes following two budgets.
Mat Blackwood also said the rate revaluation, leading to a 30 per cent average rise, may have been calculated using the wrong measure, making it costlier still for successful landlords.
Simon Delaney, 60, who runs The Firbank Pub and Kitchen in Wythenshawe, Manchester, said the industry was already in a 'real mess' even before the last Budget
The Firbank Pub and Kitchen in Wythenshawe, which is run by Mr Delaney
It comes as industry representatives warn rate hikes could lead to a 'catastrophic rate of failure' in the industry.
Mr Blackwood, 56, who once worked for businessman John Mills – a key financial backer of New Labour - was among jubilant crowds attending the party's 1997 victory celebration at its Millbank HQ.
But he told the Mail: 'I never thought I'd be potentially forced out of business by a Labour government. I won't vote Labour again under this leadership.'
Mr Blackwood fears the Valuation Office Agency has calculated revaluations on 'actual turnover' - when it should use 'fair maintainable trade'.
'FMT is what a reasonably efficient operator should achieve under normal conditions,' he explained.
The VOA defended its calculations, saying that 'in most cases', fair maintainable value 'reflects the actual turnover'.
Mr Blackwood, who runs two pubs in the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton, said the use of actual turnover would mean landlords doing well are unfairly penalised compared with those doing the bare minimum to keep a pub in the black.
The rateable value of one of Mr Blackwood's two pubs, The Old Sun, a 17th century inn which has built up a reputation for its food, has nearly quadrupled from £18,700 in the late 2010s.
It reached £39,000 in 2023. From April, it rises again to £65,000 – translating to a £20,000 hike in actual annual rate bills.
This follows three successive minimum wage hikes, last year's National Insurance rises, plus a Covid loan to repay.
The landlord - employing 40 staff at the Sun and 10 more at a second town centre pub, The New Inn, which he owns - fears revaluation could be the 'straw that breaks the camel's back' after losing £100,000 due to higher costs over the last three years.
Dave and Keith Bott, directors of Titanic Brewery, are pictured outside Bod at Stoke Railway Station.
The former Punch Taverns regional manager fears that in a worst-case scenario, he may have to hand back the Sun, which he lets from Marstons and spent £200,000 of his own money refurbishing.
If this were to happen, he said the impact could be the loss of jobs providing wages worth £600,000 to the local economy every year.
Mr Blackwood said: 'The government must redo the revaluations - or keep things as they are.'
Without a policy change, he warned lives could be at risk, adding: 'I've experience of suicides among publicans in better times. [Now] there's a lot of pressure.'
Fellow Buxton landlord Ian Howarth, who runs the Queen's Head – opposite The Old Sun – asked: 'Why isn't rateable value based on profit?'
Mr Howarth, having to find an extra £14,000 a year after a revaluation he also suspects was mistakenly based on turnover, said while his pub has high takings due to hosting live bands and opening late, it also has high costs as a result due to paying for extra staffing, musicians and security.
The 50-year-old, brother of senior Tory MP Karen Bradley, added: 'Every publican who is busy is being penalised. But we cannot appeal until the new values actually come in, which is wrong.'
Mr Blackwood and Mr Howarth argue that a 'fair maintainable trade' measure for their pubs should take into account that an average landlord might not choose to build up a busy food trade, open late or put on live music, so would have much lower turnover.
Keith Bott, director of Titanic Brewery, based in Stoke-on-Trent, said suspected use of turnover rather than FMT 'will be one of the challenges' his company makes to revaluations.
Bott, whose rates bill for the company's 17 pubs is rising to £333,500 from £148,000 this year, said: 'Looking at the numbers you can only assume (their methodology) is flawed. We'd call on the VOA to start again.'
William Lees-Jones, of Greater Manchester's oldest brewery, JW Lees, said: 'We'll be appealing quite a few valuations, maybe 10. It's a mess.'
William Lees-Jones, of Greater Manchester's oldest brewery, JW Lees, said: 'We'll be appealing quite a few valuations, maybe 10. It's a mess'
The British Institute of Innkeeping told how the 'whole way' the revaluation is 'supposed to be calculated is unfair'.
A VOA spokesperson said: 'We assess the rateable value of pubs using Fair Maintainable Trade, which in most cases reflects the actual turnover. However, we will always take individual facts into account and make adjustments where there is evidence to do so.
'At the last revaluation, many pubs were significantly affected by the pandemic, which resulted in much lower rateable values than they would have seen otherwise. If any pubs have since seen a recovery in their trade, by law we must reflect this in our new valuations.
'New valuations cannot be formally challenged until they come into force on 1 April 2026. Until then valuations are draft and ratepayers can let us know if the information we have used to calculate their valuation is incorrect.'
Simon Delaney, 60, who runs The Firbank Pub and Kitchen in Wythenshawe, Manchester, has managed three pubs and worked in the industry for 30 years.
His utility bill has skyrocketed from £5,000 to £17,000 in the space of two years, while his business rates have doubled since Reeves' Budget.
He told the Mail: 'I have sleepless nights where I just don't know what to do.
'I've gone from earning a very good profit to not earning anything whatsoever; now we're just focusing on keeping the business running, keeping our 20 people employed, [and] continuing to serve the community.'
He added: 'It's not just the business rate hike, it's the national minimum wage increases, and the National Insurance increases. We've got a government that has broken every single promise they made from day one.
'When you're not making a profit in the first place, where is the money supposed to come from?'
Mr Delaney said he has been forced to increase the price of a pint of lager from £4 to £7 since Covid hit, meaning things have almost doubled in price for punters.
'We've been shouting and shouting and shouting about this and it's like [the government] are ignoring us,' he said.
'If they do a U-turn that would be great, but it won't be enough to save pubs from closing. If I was younger, if I had a mortgage, I'd have to call it a day and close.
'Pubs will still continue to close at an alarming rate and before we know it we won't have a community pub.'
Some pub owners warned they may be forced to close as they can no longer afford to keep running their pub (Stock photo)
Emma McClarkin, CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association, told the Mail: 'For years pubs have suffered disproportionately high rates and taxes and, for many, soaring employment costs, beer duty, and new business rates will be the last straw, which is why we welcome news that government is looking at support for our locals.'
She added: 'Since 2000 we've lost close to 16,000 pubs and it's vital we halt this decline, which is why we keenly await to see the detail of the upcoming announcement.
'Meaningful change could save pubs, jobs, and allow communities to continue to gather under one roof.'
This week, Sacha Lord condemned Ms Reeves as being worse for pubs than the pandemic, as landlords said a government rescue package does not go far enough to save the industry.
The Treasury signalled a major U-turn on business rate hikes for pubs this month amid warnings that hundreds could be forced to close.
But industry chiefs said that other sectors such as cafes, restaurants and hotels will also be hit hard, along with music and theatre venues and independent shops.
Industry heads warned six hospitality venues could close every day in the next year without proper support - more than 2,000 premises.
The government is said to be putting together a rescue package for the industry, but no details have yet been confirmed.
Chair of the Night Time Industries Association Sacha Lord, who used to advise Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, warned the government is doing more harm to the hospitality industry than Covid.
Addressing the rumoured U-turn, which the government has been forced to make following Reeves' decision at the Budget to end Covid-era relief to business rates, Mr Lord said it would be 'unfair' if it only applies to pubs.
He told the Daily Mail the reversal 'has to be applied to the whole of hospitality'.
A Government spokesperson said on Thursday: 'We're protecting pubs, restaurants and cafés with the Budget's £4.3 billion support package.
'This comes on top of our efforts to ease licensing to help more venues offer pavement drinks and put on one-off events, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, and capping Corporation Tax.'
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