Retail and Hospitality Sector

Lord Smith of Hindhead Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Hindhead (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Monckton for securing this important and timely debate today and wish her every success and good luck with her pub venture. She, like others, will need some luck when being involved with the hospitality industry.

I declare my interests as set out in the register, in particular my financial interest as the chairman of the Association of Conservative Clubs—a role that I have undertaken since I stepped down as the CEO last year. For the record, I have worked for the association my entire working life, having joined the team some 39 years ago. I congratulate the four new Members of your Lordships’ House who are making their maiden speeches in this debate. I sincerely wish them well and look forward to hearing their future contributions.

We are all well aware that the hospitality industry is facing a crisis worse than it has ever seen—astonishingly, even worse than it experienced during the Covid pandemic and lockdown. We know this as there are daily articles in the press and coverage in the media about the plight of pubs and, in particular, the unfair rating increases that are set to cripple many establishments, with eye-watering multipliers which, for many, will be unsustainable over the next three years. Putting to one side the increase in wages, which affects all employers, and food inflation and other costs, the proposed increases to business rates have been seen as the final nail in the coffin. I am therefore pleased that noises from His Majesty’s Treasury indicate that there may be some re-examination of this issue, with the prospect of some sensible arithmetic being applied.

My concern, however, is that this appears to be directed towards the plight of pubs alone, and I would like to make a case for the circa 3,000 private members’ social clubs. I do not mean just the Conservative clubs that I know so well, but the working men’s clubs, the Royal British Legions, miners’ welfare institutes, naval and Air Force clubs, railway clubs, Liberal and Labour clubs—indeed, all the social clubs that make up such a significant part of so many people’s lives. These clubs are not run for profit or underwritten by a hedge fund or private equity firm, as so many pub companies are, but managed by volunteer officers and committees. Some 12,000 people are employed within the clubs.

So often, we hear how important pubs are to their communities, which is true, but every one of the members’ social clubs that I have mentioned is a community in itself. They are part of the fabric of many people’s lives, and essential to the social well-being of members, as well as to the furtherance of the objects for which the clubs were formed. As such, I ask the Minister to feed back to the Treasury team that any help or assistance that may be on the way to help pubs should be extended to help clubs in the same way, for the same reasons, and for the same outcome—in other words, a level playing field.

The society which socialises together is a stronger society, and our pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and hotels put that into practice every day. As I said in my maiden speech, 10 years ago, virtual friends can never be the same as actual friends. Let us do everything we can to ensure that our clubs, pubs and all the places where we socialise remain, so that we can continue to meet friends and make friends in the years ahead.