Latest news with #UKHospitalityCymru
Business News Wales
5 days ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
Let's Speak Up for Hospitality on Business Rates Proposals
The hospitality industry is facing an impending flashpoint that could determine whether or not some pubs, coffee shops, restaurants and even hotels are still open in Wales in a few months time. UKHospitality Cymru, the leading trade body for a sector than still contributes £4 billion to the Welsh economy and employs more than 165,000 workers, is calling on all of our friends and colleagues across the Welsh business community to lend their support today. What can you do? Just take a few minutes to respond to a Welsh Government consultation on proposed business rates changes which we believe will leave our premises across the nation in a parlous position. The consultation closes on Tuesday August 12 2025. We're asking for your help because Welsh hospitality businesses are now facing substantial and potentially damaging business rates hikes after the Welsh Government sidelined the sector in a new batch of rating plans. UKHospitality Cymru is urging all hospitality businesses to sign up to our campaign and fight these plans. Because we are bricks and mortar businesses, we have been paying an estimated three times as much as we should be if we were working within a truly equitable business rates system. As a sector, we have been left behind as the commercial climate has seen radical changes with out-of-town builds and many more people working online or away from town and city centre set ups. In recent years this imbalance has been rectified by a set of specific sectoral annual rates reliefs of between 40 and 75 per cent – reliefs that recognised the true level of contributions our venues could afford. However, now Welsh Government has proposed a new lower multiplier for our friends in retail only for 2026/27. The new proposals, critically coupled with a cut off in business rates consequential funding for Wales from Westminster, mean that there will effectively be no support for Welsh hospitality businesses in 2026/27 unless the Welsh Government reverses its current proposed position. That lack of support will mean a typical high street pub will be paying an extra £6,800 per year in business rates; a typical country hotel would see an increase of around £17,000 per year; and a city-centre hotel would see nearly £50,000 extra in costs. Some of Wales's finest accommodation attractions will see even bigger increases, damaging domestic, international and business tourism. This could all be made worse still by revaluations taking place next year and which relate back to trading times that reflected periods just after reopening from Covid. They will force rates upwards and compound the difficulties created by the industry's exclusion from support in the new proposals. Wherever you live and work, these are venues you will know well – where you meet colleagues or business contacts to discuss work, catch up with a friend for coffee, where you take relatives to celebrate and where you take the family and children to wind down after a working week. They are community assets and keen commercial contributors that have battled and survived – just – the ravages of Covid, soaring energy and food inflation and steep National Insurance rises. It is an irony that Welsh Government has prefaced these changes with claims that they will be a formula for protecting and rebuilding city centres. These enforced rate rises risk gutting the high street and devastating town centres. They will threaten the very existence of pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants across Wales. You can see how important our businesses are just by looking around at their critical mass as you pass through your local shopping centre. In Cardiff, for example, besides the scores of hospitality businesses that populate the whole of city centre, you can travel along Westgate Street and see that every business on the town side is one of ours from the Angel Hotel to Wood Street. How can stripping these businesses of their much-needed business rates support help this shopping centre to thrive? So please do lend us your help. While the consultation deadline is, of course, very important, the campaign will definitely not stop there. We urge all hospitality businesses to respond to the consultation to ensure your voice is heard. It's important to personalise your response with your own business experience. It doesn't need to be lengthy, just clear and reflective of your views. To read more about the consultation visit this link. Our members and team will keep up the pressure as long as this whole matter is to be considered – hopefully with your enthusiastic help. UKHospitality Cymru membership is a community for like-minded businesses, all committed to shaping the future of the industry for the better. For more information on membership, please click here.
Business News Wales
04-08-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
Welsh Hospitality 'Risks Being Taxed Out of Existence By Business Rates Proposal'
UKHospitality is calling on the Welsh Government to extend business rates support to include hospitality, saying the sector 'risks being taxed out of existence'. A Welsh Government consultation on non-domestic rates is due to close on August 12. The Local Government Finance (Wales) Act 2024 provided the Welsh Government with the ability to introduce differential multipliers for Wales using regulations. The current consultation seeks views on the Welsh Government's proposals to introduce differential multipliers from 1 April 2026. The Welsh Government is proposing to introduce a lower multiplier for small to medium sized retailers. It says the proposal 'recognises the unique challenges faced by 'bricks and mortar' retail shops, not least through their exposure to competition from online retailers'. It says its proposal 'would also be expected to indirectly benefit other sectors of the high street economy, through the visitor footfall supported by the maintenance of a viable retail sector'. However UKHospitality Cymru says the proposals have 'sidelined the sector' and added that hospitality in Wales is now 'facing substantial and potentially damaging business rates hikes'. It said: 'That lack of support will mean a typical high street pub will be paying an extra £6,800 per year in business rates; a typical country hotel would see an increase of around £17,000 per year; and a city-centre hotel would see nearly £50,000 extra in costs. Some of Wales's finest accommodation attractions will see even bigger increases, damaging domestic, international and business tourism.' The trade association added that it is seeking 'optimal support to stall any proposed legislation to tax Welsh hospitality businesses out of existence'. It is calling for Welsh business leaders to join it in responding to the Welsh Government's consultation. David Chapman, Executive Director of UKHospitality Cymru, said: 'This is a critical issue that will threaten the very existence of pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants across the UK. 'Hospitality must, without a shadow of a doubt, be included in any and every business rates support package, if we are to avoid the sector being taxed out. Failing to recognise and implement support for hospitality would risk the Welsh Government undermining their policy objectives, effectively leading to the gutting of the high street as we know it. 'We urge all hospitality businesses across Wales, large or small, to back our calls for support from Government, by submitting their views to the Senedd before this crucial consultation closes on 12th August. 'It's vital that not only Welsh hospitality business receive business rates support, but also our counterparts in England and Scotland.'
Business News Wales
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
Welsh Government Unveils Plans to 'Rebalance the Rates System in Favour of Retail'
Plans to change business rates in Wales, giving smaller shops a lower rate, are being considered. The Welsh Government has announced a 12-week consultation on the plans, which it says could benefit around 13,000 retail properties across Wales. It would cut rates for retail shops with rateable values less than £51,000 in a move the Welsh Government says would help them compete with online retailers. Larger properties with rateable values of more than £100,000 could be charged 'slightly more', but some public buildings like hospitals and schools would be protected. The Welsh Retail Consortium said it was concerned that the proposed changes would adversely affect larger retail premises, whilst UKHospitality Cymru say the outline proposals 'simply ignored' the challenges being faced by hospitality. It warned that returning the sector to full business rates and excluding it from reform would see bills 'dramatically increase', which it said would force businesses to cut jobs, reduce trading hours or, in the worst-case scenario, close for good. If approved, the changes would start on April 1 2026. The exact rates would be set during the Welsh Government's budget planning for 2026-27. Welsh Government Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said: 'This proposal would help re-balance the rates system in favour of retail shops, supporting the ongoing viability of the sector which faces unique challenges from online competition. 'As part of our shared strategic vision for retail and retail action plan, we're taking meaningful steps to strengthen our local economies and create more vibrant high streets across Wales.' Sara Jones, Head of the Welsh Retail Consortium, said: 'Welsh Ministers have made headway on aspects of the business rates agenda in recent years, notably introducing more regular revaluations. However, the Welsh business rate is the highest in Great Britain and has risen to a 26-year high at a time when retailers are being thwacked by a range of statutory costs. 'Whilst the consultation on proposals to reduce rates for the smallest shops sound like an encouraging step, a high proportion of retailers operate from medium-sized and larger premises. These are shops that help underpin the health and vitality of our town and city centres and high streets across Wales and account for a large share of retail jobs. 'The proposals as they stand suggest these stores could pay even more than they do at present, and more than their counterparts occupying equivalent stores in England. We need to ensure a commensurate rates reduction applies to medium-sized and larger stores too. It's not in the interests of the Welsh economy for retailers to be incentivised to invest in Cheltenham over Cardiff.' David Chapman, Executive Director of UKHospitality Cymru, said: 'The Welsh Government claims it recognises the 'unique challenges' faced by bricks and mortar businesses, yet it has simply ignored and overlooked hospitality as one of the sectors most impacted long-term by the broken business rates system. 'These plans would see bills dramatically hiked, by the tens of thousands for many, and force businesses to reduce their hours, cut jobs and see many close for good – all of which would be a direct consequence of the Welsh Government's actions. 'It will make Wales a significantly worse place to do business and see investment in hospitality diverted to the other side of the border to England. 'It is a fact that hospitality businesses pay three times more than their fair share in business rates – something that the UK Government has recognised and is addressing in its own business rates reform. 'I urge the Welsh Government to recognise the catastrophic damage these proposals would wreak and take them back to the drawing board for wholesale revision. Reduce rates across the hospitality sector and let us continue to rebuild, serve our communities, create jobs for local people and play a key role in fostering economic growth.' The consultation runs until August 12 2025.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Business rate cuts could create 'vibrant high streets'
The Welsh government is considering cutting business rates for smaller retail shops to help them compete with online retailers and to create "more vibrant high streets".A consultation has been announced on cutting rates for retail shops paying less than £51,000 in business rates, which it estimated will affect about 13,000 rates are a tax on non-domestic properties including shops, pubs and Cymru said the proposals ignored the hospitality sector and would make Wales "a significantly worse place to do business". According to the proposals, larger properties with "rateable values" – an estimation of how much it would cost to rent a property for a year – over £100,000 could be charged slightly more, while public buildings such as hospitals and schools would be protected. If approved, the changes would start on 1 April 2026, with the exact rates set during the Welsh government's budget planning for Secretary Mark Drakeford said the proposals would "re-balance the rates system in favour of retail shops" and are aimed at supporting the sector, particularly in the face of online added the plans were part of efforts to "create more vibrant high streets" across shops are an issue in many towns across the country, and research published in 2023 found one in six shops in Wales were empty. Business rates are collected by local councils and sent to the Welsh government, which uses them to distribute funds back to local on rents is gathered and analysed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which works out a price for the rates per square metre of the Chapman, executive director of UKHospitality Cymru, said the proposals "simply ignored and overlooked hospitality as one of the sectors most impacted long-term by the broken business rates system"."These plans would see bills dramatically hiked, by the tens of thousands for many, and force businesses to reduce their hours, cut jobs and see many close for good," he said. "It will make Wales a significantly worse place to do business and see investment in hospitality diverted to the other side of the border to England."Mr Chapman called for "wholesale revision" of the plans to ensure hospitality venues are eligible for a lower year, business owners in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, called for business rates to be re-evaluated, with one saying she paid more per square metre than those paid by major chains such as Marks & said lower business rates could help occupy empty shop consultation runs until 12 August.
