Reeves to provide ‘temporary support’ to the hospitality sector
The Chancellor has said that pubs will now receive more “temporary support” following warnings that thousands of businesses will close as the hike to business rates will be damaging.
Rachel Reeves said that financial relief will provided to the hospitality sector during Covid needs to “be unwound,” she added “it’s about the speed at which you do that”.
Reeves told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, “There’s a number of things happening with business rates. There’s been a revaluation of the value of properties. This is the first one since the pandemic. So rateable values were going to go up.
“And there’s a gradual withdrawal of some of the temporary support that went in during Covid.
“Now we’ve put in another £4.3 billion of additional support to phase that transition, but we do recognise that for some pubs there is still a big increase, and so we’re working pretty intensely at the moment. Again, I want to make sure that we get this right.
“These changes are not due to come in for a few more months. So we’re going to get this right. But I think most people would accept that now the pandemic is over, some of that temporary support does need to come away, but it’s about the speed at which you do that.”
