Pubs are part of the solution, but we need a plan to save them.

Anthony Hughes
4 minutes ago
4 min read

If you want to understand what’s happening to Britain’s pubs, don’t just look at the number of closures. Look at what’s happening inside the pubs that remain open.

Across the country, pub operators are cutting staff hours, reducing training, shortening opening times and delaying investment. Not because they want to — but because they’re trying to survive a cost base that is rising faster than their ability to absorb it.

This is no longer only affecting poorly run businesses. Increasingly, it’s hitting good operators running good pubs — the kinds of pubs that are at the heart of their community and that provide employment and opportunity for local people.

And that matters, because pubs aren’t just places where people spend money. They’re places where people start their working lives, where communities come together, and where local economies circulate and thrive.

Pubs are engines of work and skills

For many young people, a pub job is their first job - It’s where they learn the basics of working life:

turning up on time
working as part of a team
taking responsibility
serving people well
dealing with challenges calmly

These “life skills” aren’t limited to hospitality — they transfer into almost every career.

The pub sector also offers genuine progression. In few industries can someone go from washing glasses or collecting empty pints to becoming a supervisor, assistant manager, general manager — and ultimately, with relatively modest investment, running their own business.

That is real opportunity. And it’s often available to people who don’t have formal qualifications, personal wealth, or a head start in life.

Pubs are community infrastructure

Pubs are where life happens. They’re places for what people still call:

“hatches, matches and dispatches”— celebrating births, meeting life partners, and commemorating the lives of the recently departed.

They help tackle loneliness and isolation. They host charity fundraisers, community groups, local clubs and informal support networks. They bring people together in a way that is hard to replicate.

In an age of growing disconnection, pubs play an increasingly valuable role as informal social centres.

Pubs support local economies and supply chains

Behind every pub is a local web of jobs and businesses:

brewers, farmers, and suppliers
wholesalers and logistics operators
cleaners, engineers, glassware suppliers
food producers and manufacturers

Money spent in pubs tends to stay closer to home than money spent in many other parts of the economy.

So why are pubs under pressure?

The challenge is the relentlessness of rising costs — particularly in areas pubs can’t easily control:

rising employment costs
higher National Insurance and pension contributions
business rates that are fixed regardless of profitability
and competition from supermarkets that can sell alcohol at extremely low margins

When costs rise faster than revenue, operators are forced into difficult decisions: fewer hours, fewer staff, less training and less investment.

The knock-on impact is clear:

fewer jobs
fewer opportunities for young people
lower VAT receipts as trading hours shrink
weaker high streets
and communities losing one of their most important gathering places

What we need is a plan — not another sticking plaster

If Government wants pubs to continue contributing to work, skills, community and growth, it needs to treat them as strategic assets, not just another category of retail.

I believe the industry needs urgent support now:

Stabilise business rates through a 20p reduction in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure business rates multiplier to offset the massive hikes in rateable values and deliver
Reduce the cost of employing people in pubs - Introduce targeted relief on non-wage employment costs for pubs, focused on employer National Insurance. This could be achieved through sector specific relief on employer National Insurance for pubs or through enhanced employment allowances tied to job creation.
Level the playing field between pubs and supermarkets - increase draught beer duty relief to help widen the differential between beer sold in pubs and alcohol sold through supermarkets.

This isn’t a call for a huge, unaffordable tax giveaway. It’s a call for a clear, time-bound plan that creates certainty and stops continued decline - and crucially it's is costed in hundreds of millions, not billions.

Taking action now would help pubs plan and invest, protect jobs and training opportunities, stabilise opening hours and reduce closures

Crucially, it would help keep pubs viable long enough to continue doing what they already do well:getting people into work, building skills, strengthening communities, and supporting local growth.