#RaiseTheBar campaign gaining momentum from across government

To help support pubs and other hospitality businesses during the Covid-19 closures, the government launched their much lauded grant scheme – offering grants of up to £25,000 per site – a much needed lifeline for many, and gratefully received by many publicans.

However, as previously reported, such as in the case of the Briton’s Protection in Manchester now fundraising for survival – many pubs just missed out on this vital lifeline for having a rateable value above the seemingly arbitrary £51,000 cut off level.

We’ve been contacted by many pubs in this position, such as The Bull at Watton-at-Stone in Hertfordshire, whose rateable value went up from £24,000 to £51,000 in 2017. East Herts council rejected the site’s grant application as the rating was just £1 over the limit.

We reckon around 20% of the total pubs in the UK have missed out on this vital support.

Often these pubs with higher rateable values also have higher overheads, and are certainly no less deserving of governmental support.

For this reason, the Publican’s Post fully supports the #RaiseTheBar campaign, which was founded by Croydon Business Improvement District and Mr Fox pub in Croydon. The campaign launched on 21 April with an open letter to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy calling for the business rates threshold requirement in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant to be increased from £51,000 to £150,000 to save tens of thousands of retail, leisure and hospitality businesses from going under.

The #RaiseTheBar campaign continues to explore alternative means of support for those businesses currently unable to access the £25,000 grant.

Figures released by #RaiseTheBar show 54,638 businesses from pubs to shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, galleries and gyms are currently unable to access the £25,000 RHLG grant due to their business rates valuation falling between £51,000 – £150,000.

From their most recent press release, the campaign has been gaining ground and most significantly, the #RaiseTheBar campaign has received cross party support in the political sphere of Westminster.

On 1 May 2020, Rt. Hon. Anthony Mangnall MP issued a letter signed by 85 other Conservative MPs to Rt. Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer requesting that the Government consider raising the threshold from £51,000 to £150.000. This is an important step for the campaign demonstrating that a large proportion of the Government’s own party is in agreement that the £51,000 business rates threshold needs increasing.

The campaign has featured prominently in the national press, with close to 200 business improvement districts backing the campaign, alongside various industry associations. The online petition has also crucially surpassed the required 10,000 signatures – the point at which the government will need to respond formally.

To add your voice to the growing number of those calling for more support for these overlooked businesses – you can sign the petition here.

We will be following this campaign with great interest, and offering our full support.