Pubs, clubs and live music venues will get a 20% cut to their business rates bills from April 2027, but cafes, restaurants, hotels and shops across Coventry and Warwickshire got nothing from the announcement. The region is losing three hospitality and retail businesses a day right now, according to the woman leading local industry’s push for more help.
Stephanie Kerr, chief executive of the Leamington Business Improvement District (BID), says the relief Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled this month does not go far enough, lands too late, and skips most of the sector it claims to rescue. She now chairs a new Hospitality and Retail Group formed with the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and its answer is blunt: cut VAT to 10% and rewrite business rates for everyone, not just pubs.
A 20% Rate Cut That Skips Most of the High Street
Burnham announced the discount at a pub in Harlow, calling pubs and live music venues Britain’s ″heritage″ and ″working class culture.″ The cut applies to close to a discount reaching nearly 32,000 venues across England, and the government estimates it will save a typical pub about £1,100 a year.
It does not start until April 2027. And it does not touch the very largest live music venues, which are excluded from the scheme entirely.
Cafes, restaurants, hotels, leisure centres, health and beauty salons and general retailers were left off the list altogether. For Kerr, that gap is the whole story.
Stephanie Kerr Says Help Is Coming Too Slowly
Kerr welcomed the gesture but said it does not match the scale of what her members are facing.
″Firstly, I welcome the fact that our new PM is thinking about the high street, however I’d like to see actions go further and faster,″ she said. ″Since the announcement, I have spoken to several businesses in the sector and while they value this gesture, they point out that this help is from April 2027, which is months away. They are looking for help now.″
We’re losing three businesses per day, including many local examples, and in some cases the 20 per cent reduction doesn’t come close to offsetting the most recent business rate rises, alongside all of the other additional costs to doing business.
Kerr made that point in an interview about the announcement, tying the region’s closure rate directly to the gap between what has been offered and what businesses say they need to survive.
Who Misses Out on the Pub Rate Cut?
Cafes, restaurants, hotels, leisure venues, health and beauty businesses and general retailers get no sector specific relief under the new scheme, even though Kerr and national business groups say they face the same cost pressures as pubs. The 20% discount is written narrowly around pubs, clubs and live music venues, and even some of those, the largest music venues, fall outside it.
Kerr wants the exclusion list emptied out. ″By April next year, we have to be looking at business rates and taxation reform that works across the whole hospitality sector, including cafes and restaurants,″ she said. ″This must also extend to the health and beauty and retail sectors in our towns and cities.″
The government has defended the narrower scope by pointing to how it is being paid for. Officials say the discount is partly funded through a review of rate reliefs for businesses considered to cause social harm, such as vape shops, alongside a crackdown on online marketplaces that dodge UK tax obligations, a funding source that by design keeps the relief targeted rather than sector wide.
The 2026 Revaluation Explains the Anger
Business rates in England were overhauled in April 2026. The old system of two multipliers, small business and standard, gave way to a permanent system of five, split by property use and rateable value.
Retail, hospitality and leisure premises under £500,000 in rateable value now pay a multiplier set below the national standard, a change described in UKHospitality’s own breakdown of the 2026 shift. That discount is funded by a higher multiplier on properties valued at £500,000 or more, a group that includes large hotel chains and airports.
| Business Type | Rates Change | Effective |
|---|---|---|
| Pubs, clubs, live music venues (about 32,000 premises) | 20% cut to bills | April 2027 |
| Largest live music venues | Excluded from the 20% cut | Not applicable |
| Retail, hospitality, leisure premises under £500,000 rateable value | Multiplier set below the national standard | Since April 2026 |
| Premises rated £500,000 or more, including large hotels and airports | Multiplier set above the national standard | Since April 2026 |
| Cafes, restaurants, hotels, leisure, retail, health and beauty | No sector specific relief announced | Not addressed |
Kate Shoesmith, director of policy and insight at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), pointed to that same split. ″While news of a carve out for pubs, clubs and music venues is welcome, there are many other smaller hospitality companies facing an existential threat,″ she said. ″Meanwhile at the other end of the scale, airports and hotel chains are already paying millions more.″
Losing Three Businesses a Day
The anxiety Kerr describes locally shows up nationally too. BCC’s own tracking found concern over business rates climbing through 2026, and Shoesmith said the pressure is not evenly spread across industries.
″Our latest research shows more than a third of firms believe business rates are of more concern now than they were three months ago,″ she said. ″And this anxiety is felt more sharply in some sectors, with more than half of hospitality business, and two fifths of manufacturers and transport firms fearing the worst.″
- 41% of firms told BCC they are anxious about business rates, the highest reading since the group began tracking the question in 2017
- 65% of hospitality firms specifically expect rates pressure to worsen, the sharpest concern of any industry BCC surveys
- Three hospitality and retail businesses close every day across Coventry and Warwickshire, according to Kerr
- £4.3 billion business rates support package the Treasury built into its November 2025 Budget, spread across five years, plus £3.2 billion in transitional relief to cap the steepest bill increases
Shoesmith’s point is that the November 2025 package and the new pub discount both help, but neither reaches the businesses closing today. The costs behind those closures go beyond rates. ″The last few years of Brexit, Covid, rising energy bills, wars and other geopolitical crises have pushed costs to record highs and these show no signs of waning,″ she said.
What the Chamber Wants From the Autumn Budget
Kerr and the Chamber’s new group are not waiting for the government to widen the pub scheme on its own. Their list of demands, set out after the group’s first meeting, covers the whole of the high street rather than one category of venue.
- Cut VAT for hospitality businesses to 10%
- Extend business rates relief to cafes and restaurants
- Extend reform to hotels and leisure venues
- Extend reform to health, beauty and retail businesses
- Deliver business rates and tax reform by April 2027
Kerr argues a 10% VAT rate would bring England closer to a campaign pushing for a Europe wide VAT alignment. ″It would align us with the majority of Europe and give breathing room to businesses that are chalking up debts just to keep the lights on,″ she said.
Shoesmith wants the same Budget to go further than rates alone. She is pressing the BCC’s case, including its call for a single flat rate multiplier that would make bills easier to understand across every sector, not just hospitality. ″A step by step action plan is required,″ she said. ″The time for tinkering round the edges has long gone. What firms of all shapes and sizes need to see is a new plan for fair and proportionate business rates set out at the Autumn Budget.″
Root and branch reform of business rates was a Labour manifesto commitment before Burnham took office. The Autumn Budget, due later this year, is where the Chamber and BCC both say that promise now has to be kept.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospitality and Retail Group?
It is a group formed after the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce completed research for its Business Manifesto, developed with the think tank Centre for the New Midlands. Stephanie Kerr chairs it, and its members span large operators and independents, including McDonald’s franchisee Dawood Ibtehsam alongside small high street businesses.
How is the 20% pub business rates cut being funded?
The government says it will pay for the discount partly by reviewing rate reliefs for businesses it considers to cause social harm, including vape shops, and by cracking down on online marketplaces that avoid UK tax obligations.
What changed in the 2026 business rates revaluation?
England moved from two business rates multipliers to a permanent system of five. Retail, hospitality and leisure properties under £500,000 in rateable value now pay a multiplier set below the national standard, while properties valued at £500,000 or more, including large hotels and airports, pay one set above it.
Could hospitality VAT actually drop to 10%?
Nothing has been confirmed. The Coventry and Warwickshire Hospitality and Retail Group and the British Chambers of Commerce are both pushing for the change ahead of the Autumn Budget, where the government is expected to set out its next steps on business taxation.
