Life as a Publican

Life as a publican is often romanticised. A warm fire, a full bar, familiar faces and a steady trade. The reality today is very different. For many, it means long days that blur into long weeks, working every hour available just to stand still.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to pub owners across the Forest of Dean and wider Gloucestershire. Different villages, different buildings, different business models, but the same story every time. Business rates are becoming impossible to absorb.

To understand why this matters, you have to look beyond the headline figures and see what’s happening on the ground.

One local pub is facing business rates of £18,037 this year, already £10,000 higher than last year. From April, that bill is expected to rise again to £27,940. That’s nearly £10,000 more for a business already operating on wafer-thin margins. The result? No money to reinvest, reduced services and opening hours, pressure on staff numbers, and higher bank charges just to manage cash flow.

Another pub briefly saw its rates reduced to £1,652 after a successful appeal, offering some breathing space after Covid. But next year, rates are set to jump back to around £5,590. The owners now work seven days a week, often 12–14 hours a day. They’ve sold a second business, cut staff where possible, taken on maintenance themselves, closed one day a week to save on energy, and are considering closing more days just to stay afloat. This isn’t about profit. It’s about survival.

Elsewhere, a pub that has paid no business rates under relief will see a bill of over £10,000 a year appear overnight when that relief ends. There’s no gradual adjustment - just a cliff edge. The owners already work close to 90 hours a week, paying themselves around £1,200 a month, which works out well below minimum wage. To cover rates alone, they are now looking at cutting staff hours or doing even more work themselves.

At another long-established pub, the rateable value is set to more than double, from £16,500 to £34,250. The owners are blunt: the increase is not affordable and not survivable. Staff hours will be cut, investment will stop, and training and maintenance will be scaled back.

Business rates sit at the heart of this problem. They tax assumed turnover, not actual profit. In hospitality, high turnover does not mean high margins, it usually means more staff, longer hours and greater risk. The system actively penalises the very businesses that employ the most people and act as community hubs.

And the impact doesn’t stop at the pub door. When pubs cut back, local suppliers lose work. When pubs close, tourism declines. Villages lose meeting places, employers, sponsors and social glue. Once they’re gone, they rarely return.

If we want thriving high streets, strong rural economies and local jobs, we cannot keep piling costs onto the businesses that hold communities together. Business rates reform, alongside VAT and employment costs, is no longer optional. It’s urgent.

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