Gyms, local shops, restaurants, nightclubs and pharmacies have criticised the government for not extending business rates support beyond pubs and live music venues.
The Treasury announced on Tuesday that every pub and live music venue in England would get 15% off its new business rates bill from 1 April, worth an average of £1,650 for each, with bills frozen in real terms for a further two years.
However, there was no support announced for other sectors affected by the changes to rates, although there will also be a review of the methodology used to calculate how much hotels should pay alongside a parallel review for pubs.
Leading trade bodies said that those overlooked still faced “severe challenges”. They accused ministers of having “suffocated employment opportunities” and said the decision to focus help just on pubs was “simply outrageous”.
Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, which represents nightclubs, restaurants and bars, said the support amounted to “little more than a drop in the ocean when set against the reality of the current tax system and the cumulative damage inflicted by the last two budgets”.
He said his sector had “been savaged by rising business rates, VAT, alcohol duty, employment costs and licensing fees”, asking: “This limited, narrowly targeted relief raises a serious question: what will this actually do for the hospitality and night-time economy as a whole?”
UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, pubs, hotels and cafes, said: “The rising cost of doing business and business rates increases are a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution.”
Its chair, Kate Nicholls, said: “The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive [chancellor’s] budgets.”
She said that without “substantive solutions that genuinely reduce their costs” those businesses would face “increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices for consumers”.
Henry Gregg, the chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies, said the increase in rates for its members would push some “to the brink of collapse”.
“It’s simply outrageous that the government should offer business rate relief to pubs but ignore pharmacies that play a vital health role on thousands of our high streets,” he said.
Gyms and other sports operators were also concerned at being left out. Huw Edwards, the chief executive of the trade body ukactive, said: “Gyms, pools and leisure centres are the driving force of physical activity in the UK, with over 600 million visits in the last recorded year – taking pressure off the NHS and fuelling consumer spending, employment and high street renewal.
“Instead of supporting this industry success story, the government has done the opposite and made these essential community facilities absorb two regressive budgets that have piled on operational costs and suffocated employment opportunities.”
He said business rates for some of its members would rise by as much as 60%, forcing many “to increase prices for consumers at a time of growing health inequalities”.
Nicolas Denby from the independent gym Sleven Fitness in Vauxhall, who works with 150 independent gyms, mostly in London and the south-east, on the GymSync fitness competition, said their average uplift in business rates bill this year was expected to be 145%.
“That’s ridiculous. It has to be paid if the business does well or not. It’s a really difficult situation,” Denby said.
While many large retail chains, including Waterstones, have said their bills will not rise overall, the chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, James Lowman, said: “Local shops will feel neglected and dismissed by this government today as they are passed over for additional support.
“For those facing rates increases in April of thousands of pounds, difficult decisions will have to be made about investment, employment opportunities and the services that are provided to customers.”
The government was contacted for comment.
