Reform UK will unveil a five-point plan to save the UK’s pubs after warnings that thousands are having to close.
Leader Nigel Farage will announce in a pub that his party will reduce VAT to 10 per cent for the hospitality sector if they win the next election.
The plan will be paid for by reinstating the two-child benefit limit for everyone except for British working families, the party said.
Reform also said it would scrap the employer national insurance increase for hospitality businesses which was announced by Rachel Reeves in her first budget.
It also vowed to cut beer duty by 10 per cent and eventually abolish business rates for all pubs while changing regulations to support landlords.
Reform MP Lee Anderson blamed the two main parties for ‘facilitating’ the closure of thousands of pubs in the last ten years.
‘The loss of one pub is not just the loss of livelihood for a landlord, or the loss of a local employment hub,’ he said.
‘The loss of one pub is a loss to all of us as inheritors of a tradition dating back to Roman rule.
Reform leader Nigel Farage, pictured with candidate Trevor Shonk, has previously said: ‘This is a death knell for country pubs across Britain. Labour has no connection to how real life works’
‘Yet the Conservatives, and now Labour, have facilitated the closure of thousands of pubs over the last decade. Any contrition they show is false.
‘The crisis facing the Great British pub has been allowed to become acute, and our nation is poorer for it.’
Last week, the Chancellor announced a rescue package for landlords worth around £100million next year and said opening hours would be extended.
It means that pubs in England will get 15 per cent off their business rates next year with that amount frozen for two years after that.
It wasn’t enough, however, to lift a pub ban on Labour MPs which began after Ms Reeves announced that Covid-era support was coming to an end.
Reform said their plan would be paid for by reinstating the two-child limit on Universal Credit on everyone bar British families where both parents are in work.
It said that this would save approximately £3billion by 2029/30 which it would use to prop up the hospitality sector.
The party said it would work towards abolishing business rates for all pubs over the next four years, prioritising those most in need of help.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), there were 69,000 pubs in 1980 which fell to 46,350 in 2021.
The Campaign For Real Ale said that a thousand pubs shut in 2025, the equivalent of five a day, although some are seeking new owners.
Trade bodies also say business rates, duty increases, wage and tax rises, and new waste regulations put up costs.
UKHospitality, which represents, pubs, restaurants and hotels, estimated that the added £1billion in extra national insurance costs last year following the budget.
It said April’s increase in the minimum wage added £1.9billion to staff costs and changes to business rates have added another £500million, taking the overall extra bill last year to £3.4billion.
Regulations, such as the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging — effectively a tax on glass — are estimated to cost large pubs about £2,000 a year, according to the BPPA.
