Pub's campaign to tackle rising costs goes national

A meeting between a few pub landlords last month to discuss rising costs has ballooned to more than 500 hospitality businesses across the country signing up to a campaign fighting for fairer treatment for pubs and hospitality venues.

The Hands Off Our Pubs (HOOP) campaign, born in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, has prompted a hospitality summit to hear directly from national and civic leaders.

It comes after the government announced a 15% discount on business rates for pubs and music venues last month, after a backlash against November's budget measures.

But Mark Terry-Lush, co-founder of HOOP, said most people had "no idea how many new costs are being piled on to hospitality".

The summit marks a turning point for the fast-growing movement, which has already taken its fight for fairness in hospitality directly to Westminster.

Terry-Lush said rises were coming in the form of "business rates, an alcohol duty hike, higher employment and environmental taxes, rising energy bills and food inflation all landing at once - forcing prices up while margins collapse".

A spokesperson for HM Treasury said it was backing Britain's pubs by "cutting their new business rates bills by 15%, extending World Cup opening hours and increasing the Hospitality Support Fund to £10m to help venues grow.

Terry-Lush said if the government cared about communities and high streets, it would "stop structurally favouring supermarkets".

"Supermarkets continue to sell alcohol at wafer-thin margins that pubs cannot legally or commercially match.

"Community pubs cannot absorb this imbalance.

"They either pass on costs and lose customers, or close. That is the reality," he added.

The hospitality summit is being held at Speech House, Coleford, from 08.30 GMT.

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