UK pub closures just 2 a day now

The rate at which pubs in the UK are being closed or converted into other forms of use is easing according to Altus Group, the country’s largest business rating team.

Since last April, less than two pubs a day have been demolished or converted into other types of use such as homes or offices according to an analysis of official Government data by the real estate advisor.

In the first revaluation of business properties for seven years which came into effect ‪on 1st April last year and which determines property tax bills for the next five, pubs saw their Rateable Values increase by 14.24% to £1.627billion.

During the life of the previous business rates regime, 11,608 pubs were converted into other types of use with the pub population falling from 54,674 to 43,066 between April 2010 and April 2017 equating to ‪about four closures a day.

Figures from the Campaign For Real Ale indicate that UK pubs were closing at the rate of nearly 30 a week in 2014. Today, the number of pubs in England and Wales liable for business rates stands at just 42,450.

So in 10 months only 616 pubs have ‘disappeared’ from the Rating List completely. Their removal from the trade (for tax or other purposes) means that they’ve been either demolished or converted into other types of use.

In last March’s Spring Budget, to try and ease the rates burden, the UK Chancellor Phillip Hammond handed 90% of pubs a £1,000 discount on their business rates bills for those with a rateable value of less than £100,000. That was extended at the Autumn Budget in November for a further year to cover 2018/19 bills.

“The increase in the thresholds at which pubs pay business rates coupled with the additional £25 million of rates relief has undoubtedly stemmed the decline,” said Alex Probyn, Altus Group’s UK President.