This weekend, I returned to my local pub, The Star, for the first time since it re-opened in mid-December, following an 18-month hiatus.
Penzance Brewing Co Mild at The Star this weekend. CAMRA champion beer of Britain, don’t you know.
Those who know me will recall that it was a bar I used to work on, and it was nice to see some familiar faces, making regular use of the venue again.
The demographic hasn’t changed much (towards the older end of the scale), the Penzance Brewing Co beers, created at the back of the pub are still flowing well, and there’s now food served. The latter is one of the reasons I’m not too disappointed to be on the drinkers’ side of the bar! The Star was never a foodie pub, but the new owner needs a return on investment. I get that.
In 2004, I started writing about independent brewers and pubs on Beer Today. And I can be pretty sure that it didn’t take long before I started receiving press releases from businesses and trade associations complaining about some element of regulation. Hardy annuals over the years have been VAT, business rates, national insurance, energy costs, and cheap supermarket alcohol.
Never, though, have I experienced a time when so many of these issues have reared their head at once. Official figures show that 366 pubs — near as damn it one a day — closed in 2025. More are expected to follow this year, especially once the new business rates regime kicks in come April. The stars are aligned for an annus horribilis in the hospitality sector.
One of my favourite places to visit in the UK is Norwich, not just because it has fantastic beer and pubs, but also because it is a lovely city to walk around and take in centuries of history. I always wonder if anybody in Norwich actually watches TV or has even heard of YouTube, such is the sheer mass of great pubs in its streets, many with four or more handpumps.
On social media over the Christmas holidays, one of the landlords of the great pubs, Philip Cutter, in association with the Campaign for Pubs, made an impassioned video that will have fellow licensees nodding in agreement. “This is my 39th Christmas here at The Murderers [also known as The Gardeners Arms], and I’ve never known a time where successive Budgets have impacted my business in such a detrimental way,” he says.
“Business rate valuations have gone up here by 41%, our PAYE has increased by 30%, and our wages bill, including National Insurance contributions, has gone up by over £500 a week.”
He says owners of many businesses he has spoken to have had enough. They are going to be handing their keys back.
He added: “Our once great institution of hospitality in pubs is going to be terminally in decline. We need support immediately from the government — we are being taxed out.
“Please support pubs, please support our great industry, please support independent pubs, but, most of all, remember they’re wouldn’t be a Christmas without innkeepers.”
Strong words, indeed, and a key insight into how the current struggle to keep British pubs open really is as bad as it can get. And it’s a particular problem for our great independent pubs, which don’t have the cash reserves and property assets of the big players.
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The Labour government, which many thought would be supportive of pub culture, has turned out to be anything but. These are community hubs, places where the lonely can meet and catch up with friends. The Star is inaugurating a coffee morning this week, just so folk can drop in and have a chat, prior to the pub’s normal opening hours. This is the way things should be.
I see social media buzzing with the idea that Labour MPs should be banned from pubs as a punishment for their administration’s part in the sector’s woes. That dedicated straitened landlord Jeremy Clarkson appears to be leading the campaign. But anyone with any sense realises that the opposite course of action is required.
What are pubs for if not heartfelt debate? You don’t ban politicians, you engage with them. And Andy Slee, chief executive of the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA), agrees. In a Daily Mail interview, he says that the future of pubs affects all MPs as the venues are at the heart of their constituencies.
Like many others, he sees a botched business rates reform as a policy “so, so profoundly bad that t must be a mistake”. He added: “I’d encourage Labour MPs to go into their pub and face the music, and understand specifically what the consequences of this policy would be.”
He’s right. This needs addressing before the start of the new financial year in April. Our pubs are too important to be taxed out of existence when they are most needed. In the pub, we are all equal and we can put our woes to one side for a while over a beer, either alcoholic or not. A lack of community and social cohesion is at the heart of a lot of contemporary problems, and while pubs can’t sort all troubles, they’re a great place to start a conversation.
Pull up a bar stool, grab an independent beer, and let’s talk.
