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The Standard's Head of Going Out, David Ellis, and food and drink writer, Josh Barrie, discuss the impact and potential solutions of business rates on pubs in London and the hospitality industry as a whole.
Transcript
00:00It's a community asset and what would Britain be without a pub?
00:04Business rates are coming and pubs are basically looking like they're completely screwed.
00:08The government needs money and it's picking on hospitality to try and make it.
00:12Pubs have only just got out of the Covid relief.
00:15They're now facing huge, huge increases and it's not just across the country.
00:20It's kind of looking like a bloodbath even in central London.
00:24There are places in Soho who are basically looking like they're going to pay £100,000 more on rates
00:28which means they're going to pay about £47,000, £50,000 more in tax.
00:33And although the government said that they're thinking about doing a U-turn,
00:37nothing's been confirmed yet.
00:39I think we're on the cusp of losing a great British institution that people can afford,
00:45which is pretty frightening.
00:46I think a minister of hospitality would be good.
00:49That was an idea.
00:50As you say, they need to talk to publicans and the government.
00:54They don't understand hospitality at all.
00:56I don't think no government has.
00:58And it's interesting because that would be a quite clear and simple way
01:03for the industry to have a voice in Parliament.
01:07People like Rachel Reeves to actually kind of get her head around stuff.
01:11The pub is an easy win to say but it's the lifeblood, isn't it?
01:14It's a community asset and what would Britain be without a pub?
01:18It's a community asset and what's the country's first thing to say.
01:23We're not allowed to say.
01:25We're not allowed to say.
01:25We're not allowed to say.
01:26We're not allowed to say.
01:27We're not allowed to say.
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