The #MyPub campaign has been successful in connecting many of your pubs with your local MPs to share the powerful impact your businesses have at the heart of your community, share the challenging trading realities for your pubs and gain their backing for the support needed to safeguard your futures. Thank you to many of you for your support since the launch of the campaign last summer.
Through your work, an extension to the current business rates relief was secured for England, with pubs being singled out yet again for their role in their communities. This was a targeted ask of Government to gain early confirmation of essential ongoing support and was achieved in full for many of your pubs. We are disappointed that the devolved nations have not chosen to apply the relief and will continue to call for support for Scotland and Wales.
As we now head towards a full budget on 6th March 2024, we continue to seek a reduction in the unfair levels of taxation that your pubs are subject to with a priority on reducing VAT. This has been a key priority from across our members and will clearly be critical as you continue to face escalating costs across your business including the significant rise in the national living wage (NLW) to be implemented from April 2024. The case is clear for a reduction in VAT which will support the ongoing viability of many pubs, prevent unnecessary business failure, encourage further investment in pub teams & businesses and provide an engine of growth within the wider economy.
We are constantly engaging with MPs, Ministers and officials in Government, sharing the challenges you are facing, details from our recent surveys and feedback from across our membership, but nothing delivers that message more powerfully than hearing it directly from you as a business in their constituency.
We are now calling on all pubs to write to their MPs, asking for their backing for a continuation for an investment in pubs through lowering taxes with a priority on reducing VAT - We have provided a template letter for you to send to your MP to urgently ask for their support on this.
We have also created some social media assets to help you share this message with your local MP's, ensuring they understand why we are asking them to fight for your vital and viable pubs and the support that they will need to survive - please also encourage your teams, customers, friends and families to share why they love #MyPub and why it deserves urgent support.
Please feel free to add or use your own words across all social media platforms, but please remember to include the hashtag #MyPub and tag the BII via the handles below in all posts so we can re-share them.
Twitter - @BIIandBIIAB
Facebook - @BIIandBIIAB
Instagram - @BritishInstituteofInnkeeping
LinkedIn - British Institute of Innkeeping