Rupert Lowe MP
Business rates. The British people, and its MPs, do not understand the coming apocalypse. And it is going to be an apocalypse. I talk to pub owners, cafe owners, all types of small business owners. They are terrified and nobody is listening.
Real people. Family businesses. The sort of places that keep towns and villages alive.
They are running out of road, and the business rates change will be the end of the road for many.
They’ve absorbed blow after blow over the last few decades and kept going anyway. But this will be the end for many. A sad, bitter end.
Rising rents. Rising supplier costs. Rising insurance. Endless compliance. Paperwork that grows every year but adds absolutely zero value.
They dealt with all the lockdown bullshit.
Forced closures. Confusing rules. Constant U-turns. Damaging loans. ‘Following’ the science, remember?
Many got no proper support due to the structure of their businesses. They battled on.
People remortgaged homes, drained savings, worked unpaid - just to keep the doors intact so they could reopen when finally allowed.
When restrictions were lifted, it wasn’t normal. Customers poorer, costs stayed high, footfall patchy.
Then the energy costs blowing up after the Ukraine war. Still bleeding the business dry.
And now, on top of all of that, they’re staring down a business rates revaluation that could be the final straw. Not because their business is suddenly thriving or profits are surging, but because a formula has made some impossibly complicated recalculations.
For hospitality, there is no escape. A pub can’t go remote. A cafe can’t move to a warehouse.
They have to be there. In the town, paying extortionate business rates.
This, of course, is all after higher operating costs from the first Reeves budget. NI changes were punishing for these businesses. Absolutely punishing.
We inflict such brutal costs on high street businesses, then we’re confused when so many of our town centres are becoming desolate shitholes? Not that difficult to figure out, is it?
And now this. The rates increase. For small pubs, it’s adding tens of thousands of pounds to the bill every year. THEY WILL GO BUST.
There is no way to pay it and stay viable. It’s impossible. I’d like to see Reeves try. Then she’d really start crying.
I am doing what I can in Westminster. Questions asked, motion tabled - with just three MPs supporting so far.
James McMurdock, Gavin Williamson and Peter Bedford. I am going to lobby for more support, and hopefully we can get Government to listen.
We’ve seen with the farming tax changes can be made if enough noise is made, but sadly I’m just not seeing anywhere near that same level of anger. And we need anger for them to notice.
This could be the end of the British pub.
That is not an exaggeration, and it’s not just pubs - it’s entire industries.
So get angry. Ask your MP to sign the motion.
I am doing what I can in Westminster.
It HAS to change.
