'There will be price rises' - West Sussex village pub landlord warns customers after Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her second Budget
The landlord of a pub in Felpham has warned customers that there inevitably will be price rises in the near future.
This comes after chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her second Budget to the House of Commons last Wednesday (November 26) – unveiling a series of tax rises and raising the national minimum wage.
Our sister title, insidermedia.com, reported: “Asking ‘everyone to make a contribution’ through the tax hikes – which included a 'mansion' tax, threshold freezes and increased rates on property, savings and dividend income – Reeves pledged to invest in infrastructure referencing schemes across the country as she looks to spark growth in the economy.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer pledged to introduce the lowest taxes since 1991 for pubs, restaurants and small shops by increasing the levy on higher-value properties.
But as more details came to light, a number of independent businesses realised that bills would, in reality, go up.
Among them is The Fox Inn, in Waterloo Road – a public house which dates back to 1790 and sits in the heart of Felpham.
Alison Griffiths, MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, visited the independently run village pub after the Budget was announced.
In a video, published on her Facebook page, the MP said: “I'm here at the Fox Inn in Felpham with Charlie Cockaday who is the landlord here. I just wanted to hear directly from Charlie what the impact is of Rachel Reeves' budget this week.”
When asked what his message to the chancellor would be, Mr Cockaday said: “Last year there were national insurance increases, minimum wage increases, alcohol duty increases and we absorbed the majority of them as a business.
"This year, we have another minimum wage increase which I kind of understand [but] we also have business rates reform which to me doesn't make sense.
"Our chancellor can't be saying this is the best deal and these are the lowest business rates we've been paying for years when it's just incorrect.
"When you add what we were paying to what we are going to be paying – it's thousands of pounds of difference, in the wrong direction.
“There will be price rises [at the pub] – there has to be. We can't absorb that.”
Addressing those watching her video, Mrs Griffiths added: “So the price of your pint, thanks to Rachel Reeves, is about to increase despite the best efforts of landlords like Charlie.”
Mrs Reeves said last week’s Budget ‘builds on the choices that we have made since last July’ – to ‘cut NHS waiting lists, to cut the cost of living and to cut debt and borrowing’.
“No doubt, we will face opposition again,” she added,
"But I have yet to see a credible, or a fairer alternative plan for working people.
“These are my choices – the right choices for a fairer, a stronger, and more secure Britain.”
To ‘support our high streets’, the chancellor said she was announcing a package of regulatory changes – ‘as called for by UK Hospitality and the British Retail Consortium’.
She added: “I will support the great British pub[lic] through our new national licensing framework – encouraging councils to back our pubs and to back late-night venues with greater freedoms.
“For business rates, I will introduce permanently lower tax rates for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties – the lowest tax rates since 1991 … paid for through higher rates on properties worth £500,000 or more, like the warehouses used by online giants.
“At the budget last year, I increased the national minimum wage and the national living wage… and I am doing the same this year too… accepting the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission in full and increasing the minimum wage for 18–20 year-olds from £10 to £10.85 per hour and increasing the living wage from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour.”