Proposing a halving of hospitality VAT, cutting beer duty and scrapping business rates over four years, Reform UK claims its pub rescue package will revive struggling venues and reduce pint prices. Nigel Farage knows how to steal the headlines, now he needs to start the work on how to deliver the package.
Reform UK has set out a five-point plan to support Britain’s struggling pub and hospitality sector, pledging major tax reductions and regulatory reforms ahead of the next general election.
At the heart of the proposal is a commitment to halve VAT for hospitality from 20 percent to 10 percent, alongside a 10 percent cut to beer duty and the phased abolition of business rates for pubs over four years.
Party leader Nigel Farage said the package would ease mounting financial pressures on publicans and help revive the licensed trade.
Reform claims that if landlords passed on the beer duty cut to customers, prices could fall by 5p per pint. The party also promised to exempt hospitality businesses from the recent increase in employers’ National Insurance and to reform tied pub agreements it described as outdated.
Reform MP Lee Anderson said his party could “end the pubs crisis” and sharply criticised successive governments over closures across the sector.
“The loss of one pub is not just the loss of livelihood for a landlord, or the loss of a local employment hub,” he explained. “The loss of one pub is a loss to all of us as inheritors of a tradition dating back to Roman rule.”
Under the plan, relief on business rates would be expanded annually until all pubs are covered by 2029-30, with high street venues prioritised. Reform estimates the overall package would cost billions over the decade, rising each year, and says it would be funded through changes to Universal Credit and the reinstatement of the two-child benefits cap.
Tax Reform to save our pubs
Lee Anderson said… “The loss of one pub is not just the loss of livelihood for a landlord, or the loss of a local employment hub. The loss of one pub is a loss to all of us as inheritors of a tradition dating back to Roman rule…
Originally published on Coinslot on February 9, 2026. Republished with permission.