Pub landlord warns Rachel Reeves’ budget will send bills soaring

Two-pub owner Martin Barnes says this new Budget will see his bills rocket by tens of thousands of pounds every year.

Martin, 40, runs two separate pubs in rural Cheshire but said he was particularly “disappointed” Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision over business rates.

He currently benefits from 75 per cent rate relief – part of the last Government’s post-Covid recovery plan. And he was desperate for that to continue past next April. Instead he will get just 40 per cent relief.

He told the Daily Express: “Labour have said they are committed to Business Rates reform in the following financial year – but in the meantime they shouldn’t have done anything.

“It’s not as bad as it could be but it’s still going to mean we have to make cuts in other areas.

“I think we’ve reached the glass ceiling in terms of what we can pass onto our customers.”

Martin took over the tenancy of The George and Dragon in Holmes Chapel in 2010 with his parents – just two years into the financial crisis.

In 2018 they decided to buy as well – and purchased the Antrobus Arms in Antrobus.

The increase in the minimum wage and Employer’s National Insurance contributions will also be costly for the family-run firm – which pays over 40 staff at peak times, many of them part-time.

He said: “The Employer’s Allowance is being increased but the point at which we pay employer’s NI is being lowered quite dramatically to £5,000.

“In our industry we have a number of part time workers so that will disproportionately affect hospitality.

“We will have to manage our hours so that nobody loses their job- but on the whole I anticipate our labour bill will increase.”

As for the ‘penny off a pint’ that will affect the price the brewery pay but that may not get passed onto publicans, he said. And if it isn’t it definitely won’t be passed onto customers.

He added: “That decrease is applied at the brewery, not at the pub. My expectation is that won’t affect us. I don’t think it will bring prices down.”

The price of soft drinks will also go up, he said.

“We need to work out how much we need to generate in sales to counter all that – and what we can cut.

“That will mean trying to do the job with fewer people or hours. The rise in the minimum wage might mean our customers have more money in their pockets, but will they spend it? You can’t guarantee that.

“What we absolutely know is that the cost of doing business has increased. We don’t know what level of growth we will achieve.”

But Martin said he retained an element of hope for the future- especially given a fall in interest rates and once they had repaid their Covid debt.

“What I love is how agile and creative this industry is. The 2020s have hit us particularly badly but we do find ways of surviving.

“While these short term measures are relatively painful I can see a reason to believe things will be better from 2027.”