The British Beer and Pub Association counts 295 closures in nine months and expects about 360 by year end; Lowri Griffiths asks who will hold the quiz night
A Pub a Day Is Calling Last Orders for Good, and the Big Smoke Is Not Immune
The British Beer and Pub Association counts 295 closures in nine months and expects about 360 by year end; Lowri Griffiths asks who will hold the quiz night
By Lowri Griffiths, lifestyle and current affairs correspondent, North London
The Count
The British Beer and Pub Association says 295 pubs permanently closed in the first nine months of 2026, and expects around 360 to close by the end of the year, about one a day, according to ITV News on 12 October. Of the closures to the end of September, 226 were in England, 64 in Scotland and 5 in Wales. The South East, with 42, and the North West, with 39, had the highest numbers among English regions. The article gives no London figure, so I cannot tell you what the number is for the capital, and I will not guess.
The BBPA estimates about 5,000 job losses, with more than half of those roles held by people under 25, and an average loss of 200,000 pounds in tax receipts for each closure.
The Words of the Industry
Emma McClarkin, the BBPA’s chief executive, is quoted as saying, “When a local closes, the damage is felt far and wide.” She adds that “the Treasury loses, on average, 200,000 pounds in tax receipts every time a local calls last orders.” She also notes that the Prime Minister has pledged that the cavalry is coming.
I can report what is said. The estimate of lost tax receipts is the trade body’s own, and a lobbyist’s arithmetic is not an audit. But I have stood in enough closing pubs to know that the loss is not only fiscal.
Why They Close
The article lists the usual causes: a high tax burden and regulatory costs, which operators say continue to bite despite recent business rates discounts, labour costs that the industry wants reviewed, particularly for under-25s, and beer duty and draught relief, which the BBPA wants frozen and increased respectively. Pubs get a 15 percent business rates discount for the current tax year, rising to 20 percent next year.
The Autumn Budget is due on 28 October, according to Grant Thornton, which says the 20 percent cut for pubs, social clubs and live music venues takes effect in April 2027, and that hotels, restaurants, cafes and cinemas are excluded. Every landlord I know is waiting to see whether the Chancellor says anything more.
A Word From North London
My local, which I will not name because the landlord reads my columns, has a Tuesday quiz, a dartboard that has seen better days and a regular called Dennis who says nothing until the last question. If that pub closed, the people would not go to another pub. They would go home. The quiz is the part of London that nobody counts.
The BBPA figure makes the point in its own way. A pub is not an asset on a balance sheet. It is a place where eight people turn up in a bad week because someone will notice if they don’t.
What Could Help
The industry’s wish list is plain: a rates burden that reflects what a pub earns, a review of labour costs, a freeze in beer duty and a larger draught relief. Whether these are the right priorities is for the Treasury. I note only that the industry has asked for them again and that the relief for 2027 was announced before the latest closure figures.
A smaller thing that costs nothing is to go to your local on a night when it is quiet. A pub with six people in on a Wednesday is a pub that makes it to Friday.
What the Figures Do Not Say
The article does not say how many of the 295 closures were forced by the owner’s decision and how many by a landlord’s sale of the building. It does not say how many new pubs opened, which matters, since net numbers differ from gross. And it does not say what share of closures were pubs that had already gone quiet.
Those omissions are normal in a news report on a press release. They are also reasons to read the BBPA’s own statistics, which are public, before using the number in an argument at the bar.
The Last Round
There is a political angle, and it is not subtle. Pubs vote, in the sense that the people who drink in them do. A government that wants to be seen on the side of the high street will find that the pub is the first test.
Meanwhile I will keep going on Tuesdays, and I will not tell you what Dennis got right on the last question.
A Note From the Comic Press
Comic writers work the same news cycle from another angle. A recent run of dispatches on a property slump in Cebu shows the form: Manila News on slow condominium sales in Cebu, the London Prat on British pensioners asked for referees and a letter from the vicar (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on an Ohio realtor whose showings now last two hours. Each is anchored to a real market story and uses exaggeration openly. More is at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market.
For the lighter side of the news, there is always NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/