Hospitality Businesses

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support hospitality businesses.

[The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury (Lord Stockwood) (Lab)]

My Lords, hospitality businesses are fundamental to the life of our communities. As such, we are introducing permanently lower business rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, and a £4.3 billion support package over three years to shield rate payers from bill increases following the revaluation. In addition, the Chancellor announced earlier today that every pub and live music venue will receive 50% off their new business rates on top of this support, and bills will be frozen for two years. Moving forward, we will review the valuation methodology for pubs and hotels as well.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, the Government’s announcements are welcome, as far as they go, and will provide some short-term relief to three out of four pubs, but in three years’ time, when the discounts and the freeze end, bills will still rise by 76%. Also, there was nothing for hotels beyond a review of valuation methodology, despite the fact that hotels’ rates will rise by 115% over three years. Why do the Government not just apply the 20p discount that is allowed in legislation across the entire hospitality sector, instead of the current 5p? That proposal has the virtue of being much simpler and cleaner than endless reviews and freezes. Why is this relief restricted to three years, and when will the review of hotel rates be delivered?

[Lord Stockwood (Lab)]

Business rate reform has been on the agenda for the last number of Parliaments and this Government have taken it on. Since I came into government six months ago, I have been proud that our overall objectives have been about stability in our economy, bringing down inflation—it is on target for next year—and making sure that consumers have more money that they can spend in the hospitality industry. Alongside that, the review of overall business rates and the commitment of £4.3 billion mean that over a third of businesses will pay no business rates, over half of ratepayers will see no increases and 23% will see their bills going down. This is funded by targeting those with higher rateable values. Overall, while the main thing is bringing stability to the economy and bringing inflation down to make sure that consumers are spending, reform of revaluation is increasingly important as well.