This is not about nostalgia, changing tastes, survial of the fittest, or poor management. It is about a broken tax and regulatory system that is pushing hard‑working, labour‑intensive businesses into closure.  Hospitality has shown extraordinary resilience through crisis after crisis. But resilience is not infinite.

These are the challenges killing our otherwise viable businesses:

1. Business rates
Fixed, profit-blind tax detached from trading reality. Rising by 70–115 % for many venues, payable regardless of footfall, seasonality or margin. The single biggest threat.

2. VAT too high for hospitality 
One of the highest hospitality VAT rates in Europe. Directly suppresses margins, investment, and competitiveness.  we need 10% VAT for hospitality – permanently.

3. Labour costs, National Living Wage, employer NI and regulations
Hospitality is labour-intensive. Rising wages, regulations and employer NI increases add £000s per employee each year, with no corresponding productivity uplift.

4. Energy and utility costs
Still materially higher than pre-2020 levels. Small and rural operators lack buying power and hedging options enjoyed by large corporates.

5. Alcohol duty and food input inflation
Repeated duty rises and volatile food prices directly erode thin margins and reduce customer affordability.  

6. Supermarkets – unfair advantage
Supermarkets sell alcohol as a loss leader, spreading costs across vast product ranges and scale efficiencies, while pubs face higher business rates, staffing, compliance and social responsibility costs just to serve a pint.

7. Planning, licensing and regulatory burden
Slow, inconsistent and costly. Delays investment, restricts growth and consumes management time without adding trading value.

8. Debt legacy from Covid and recent trading shocks
Many businesses are still servicing loans taken to survive mandated closures, reducing resilience to new cost pressures.

9. Skills shortages and retention
Recruitment and retention remain difficult due to pay pressure, housing costs and limited local labour pools in rural areas.

10. Consumer affordability and confidence
Cost-of-living pressures reduce discretionary spending, frequency of visits, and average transaction value.

11. Insurance and compliance costs
Premiums and compliance requirements continue to rise, adding friction and fixed overhead without improving viability.

In simple terms, business rates, VAT and supermarket inequality are the primary Government-sanctioned structural failures; everything else compounds the damage. Fix those, and the industry can absorb the rest. Ignore them, and closures accelerate