Over the last few weeks I’ve been asked a version of the same question more than once:
“Didn’t pubs just get help with business rates?”
It’s a fair question. The headlines certainly made it sound that way.
The reality is a bit more complicated.
What most people saw
Recent announcements talked about support for hospitality and reductions to business rates bills. On the surface, it looked like pubs had finally caught a break after several difficult years.
If that were the full picture, you’d expect pressure on pubs to ease.
For many, it hasn’t.
What actually happened
Behind the scenes, many pubs were given higher Rateable Values following the latest revaluation. Rateable Value is the figure used to calculate business rates.
Reliefs were then applied to reduce the immediate impact of those increases.
That’s an important distinction:
the relief reduced how bad the increase was — it didn’t remove it.
For many pubs, the underlying bill is still significantly higher than before.
Why this catches people out
Business rates are a fixed cost. They don’t change with the weather, footfall, or how good or bad a trading week has been.
When a fixed cost rises, pubs have limited options:
- increase prices
- absorb the cost and accept lower margins
- cut back elsewhere
- or delay investment and improvements
None of those options are painless.
“But didn’t pubs get big COVID discounts?”
Yes — during the pandemic, temporary reliefs significantly reduced business rates bills. Those measures were vital at the time and helped many pubs survive.
However, those reliefs have now ended.
For many pubs, the combination of:
- higher Rateable Values
- reduced or removed reliefs
means the actual amount payable today is higher than it was before COVID, even after the recent changes.
That’s the part that often gets lost in headlines.
Why some pubs are “holding prices”
You may see pubs saying they’re standing firm on prices despite rising costs.
That doesn’t mean costs haven’t increased.
It usually means the pub is absorbing those increases instead of passing them straight on.
That approach can protect customers in the short term, but it also means margins are squeezed. Over time, that affects what a pub can reinvest in staff, maintenance, and improvements.
Holding prices isn’t free — it’s a choice.
Where we sit at the Old Cross
At the Old Cross Tavern, we’ve always tried to price fairly rather than chase the cheapest pint in town. Sometimes that means absorbing costs, sometimes it means making careful adjustments — but never knee-jerk reactions.
We’d rather explain what’s happening honestly than pretend nothing has changed behind the scenes.
The bigger picture
Pubs aren’t crying wolf.
They’re adapting — quietly — as they always have.
All I’d ask is this: when you see a simple headline about “support”, remember there’s usually more going on behind the bar than the headline has room to explain.
