Tax Break Welcomed For Pubs

Mike Martin, Lib Dem MP for Tunbridge Wells, has welcomed the Government’s U-turn on increasing taxes on pubs.

Mike Martin, Lib Dem MP for Tunbridge Wells, has welcomed the Government’s U-turn on increasing taxes on pubs, after forming a group of local businesses to lobby against “ruinous” business rates.

The Tunbridge Wells MP, representing a collective of 17 hospitality businesses in the town, contributed a submission of evidence to the Government’s business rates consultation last year.

Martin wrote the submission after meeting with local hospitality representatives to discuss the economic challenges facing the sector and proposals to alleviate them. 

The group has described the current business rate system as a “tax on investment” and “fundamentally flawed”, proposing several recommendations.

These included an introduction of more targeted rate relief, a review of rateable values, the rebalancing of commercial property valuations and the implementation the Liberal Democrat proposal for a Commercial Landowner Levy.

Liberal Democrats are committed to a complete overhaul of the business rates system, replacing it with a Commercial Landowner Levy based on the land value of commercial sites rather than their entire capital value, thereby stimulating investment, and shifting the burden of taxation from tenants to landowners.

The party would also abolish Non-Residential Stamp Duty to improve the efficiency of the commercial property market and making life simpler for businesses that want to own or change premises.

Mike Martin MP said:

 “The Government has finally woken up to the reality that bricks and mortar hospitality businesses in our towns and villages are killing themselves to balance the books.  

“I welcome this U-turn on business rates for our pubs, but all our local businesses need the support and confidence to invest in their firms and employ more staff.”

“Businesses in Tunbridge Wells want to compete on a fair playing field so that their success is determined by their entrepreneurism and hard work, not by Government tax codes”.

“The Government must go further by scrapping business rates if it wants to make our high streets competitive again. The business rates system is a gift to online retailers, like Amazon, who operate marketplace monopolies and rely on warehouses far from our towns and cities.”