Tom Kerridge leads calls on Jeremy Hunt to behave as pubs and eating places will shut with out tax freeze

Tom Kerridge is main calls from the hospitality trade for Jeremy Hunt to freeze taxes for pubs and eating places, warning of mass closures with out motion.

The TV chef and greater than 200 of Britain’s most senior hospitality chiefs have signed a letter to the Chancellor warning that companies will shut their doorways for good if the Authorities doesn’t name off a deliberate rise in enterprise charges subsequent yr.

Mr Kerridge, who runs a string of pubs and eating places throughout the UK, stated: “The hospitality trade has taken a battering lately.

“The stark actuality for a lot of companies is that with rising prices and ongoing challenges, time is working out and with out additional help from the Authorities they’ll shut their doorways.”

Different signatories of the letter to Mr Hunt embody fellow TV cooks Monica Galetti, who’s a choose on MasterChef: The Professionals, and Tom Aitkens, a choose on the BBC’s Nice British Menu.

The bosses of over 230 hospitality firms together with Burger King, Fuller’s, Greene King and Mitchells & Butlers have additionally put their names to the letter forward of the Autumn Assertion subsequent week.

Retail and hospitality companies got as much as 75pc charge aid in 2022 to assist with inflation. Nevertheless, that’s set to run out subsequent April.

On the identical time, enterprise charges are anticipated to go up consistent with September’s charge of inflation subsequent yr.

UK Hospitality stated the sector would face an increase of just about £1bn if charges rise as deliberate.

The foyer group has warned that the sector will wrestle to manage at a time when inflation means companies are below immense stress. The price of all the pieces from wages to vitality and substances has soared, whereas visits to pubs and eating places have declined as households handle tight budgets.

383 pubs closed within the first half of 2023, in keeping with advisory agency Altus, in contrast with 386 that closed over all the of 2022.

Round 8,500 evening golf equipment and late-night bars additionally shut within the yr to September, in keeping with the Evening Time Industries Affiliation.

The letter to Mr Hunt warns: “With out motion, we’ll see continued venue closures, job losses and cancelled funding that can hurt our excessive streets and communities in each a part of the nation.”

Simon Emeny, the chief govt of pub firm Fuller’s, informed The Telegraph final month that the speed of closures could be “multiplied tenfold” with out an extension to charge aid.

Mr Kerridge has beforehand stated there’s little cash within the hospitality trade and referred to as for the Authorities to create a minister for hospitality.

He informed The Instances in September: “Consider me, if there was some huge cash in hospitality you wouldn’t have 8,000 closures this yr.”