There has to be something fundamentally wrong - restaurant closure

That's interesting, didn't know that.

Thank you

The government is currently putting legislation through parliament which will ban upwards only rent review provisions in commercial leases. This is a control on commercial rents.

And it's tax deductible anyway.

there are ways of getting round not paying business rates on an empty premisses.

Landlords do pay rates when the premises us empty.

If commercial landlords had to pay the business rates on their properties - occupied or not - then you'd see things change instantly.

In fact the instant solution to all empty property - residential or commercial would be to make them cost money regardless of whether they are used or not.

You can tell it's probably the best solution as it will never happen.

Agree that a lot of the time it’s to do with the commercial landlords and their greed. Years ago when I worked for a high street bank, the lease on one of the branches came up for renewal. It was only a small branch in an enormous building so the bank said they only wanted to back rent half the property (the other half could have easily been a separate unit for a shop etc). Landlord said no out of pure greed so the bank shut the branch and the building is still empty 10 years later. It wasn’t financially viable for them to keep that branch open because the overheads were massive in comparison to the money the branch was making.

You clearly haven't visited Bristol city centre...I stopped working there in 2009. Since then there have been 3 roads built full of bars/restaurants, lots of pop up food vans. The centre has at least 5 food vans often more.

The town I live in outside of Bristol has 4 Indian restaurants. 2 Italian. Several pubs that do food. A two restaurants that do a whole range of food. A fish restaurant. A bakery cafe.A tapas/Spanish bar. Plus at least 6 take aways...all for 27,000 people. There are a total of 15 pubs i can walk to from my house including 2 in our lying villages.

It's boom town re eating/drinking out. Yet we have lost 2 women hairdressers in the last 5 years.

As someone with a business - neither did the Tory’s, please don’t imply it’s all this government . This gvt have at least doubled the employers NI tax allowance to £10,000 per company per year - so that many company’s and individuals with 3 or less people won’t pay any at all - not exactly hugely publicised by right wing media - in fact anything positive is kept very quiet.

the business rates system needs total reform and so in my opinion do rules around commercial rents - in my view if premises have been empty 6 months it more the local authority should have a rule that all offers go via them and are let to the most viable business at best offer as they are making jack shit if it’s empty -

There’s a restaurant up for grabs in our
local town - the rates alone are £68k per year. That’s before staff costs and other bills. It’s just a small town in the midlands mind you, nothing fancy. The mind boggles, how any business could stay afloat.

Rates and energy costs are the reason our local pubs are closing down, no support rising prices people not spending. It’s a bit of a shit show out there for all SMEs

Wages too high? People can't afford to eat out? It's one or the other. Or is he saying that hospitality workers don't deserve to be paid enough to eat out

Read Giles Coren in today’s Times on the subject. (7/2). Taxes and wages too high and people can’t afford to eat out.

High rents, business rates, ridiculous utility costs...

No wonder independent shops and restaurants end up closing.

This government does not understand small businesses and is doing nothing to support them.

Plus with the cost of living customers have less money to spend.

Definitely agree, if it's a popular place with repeated custom then people won't mind paying a little extra and the business can continue. Projections would be run for the year or two ahead and inflation, cost increases would be allowed for.

It’s what happens when a business doesn’t pass on the price rises to customers. It’s sad in a way but business is business. I wonder if the place would be as busy with people happy to pay £20 for a lasagne or £18 for a pizza? Probably not, and maybe the owners knew this.

I have a Ltd company as does my H and he also has separate self employed status too for separate work . It’s not an open and shut case that ‘all’ of those people couldn’t claim - my h claimed bounce back loan on his company ( not huge but still £10k as that part of his business very much affected) and also got 2 or 3 payments of several thousand on his self employment via SEISS as that was related to tax assessment filed for previous year on 31st January - just before the 1st lockdown . My company was ok but I could carry on- one issue of course is a lot of self employed profits aren’t that high due to using as deductions everything you can possibly deduct - hence making profits look smaller and that’s what Swiss payments were based on - no one likes to say that, but is a fact.

the problems in the main were with freelancers and self employed who had been going less than a year and had yet to file any accounts and directors who paid themselves mainly via dividends and little on PAYE ( a lot I know) - I’ve since changed how I pay myself, far more PAYE and less in dividends . And there’s a 3rd bunch including several people I know of ( I work in media/entertainment) that simply ‘hadn’t declared tax’ -

Im not saying I agree with people being excluded and it was particularly harsh on those who had yet to file but certainly made me realise that I would rather pay PAYE than risk that again - I was lucky that I wasn’t affected , I just thought it’s a bit more nuanced than people might think and didn’t apply to all self employed/freelancers or directors

It's nothing to do with net zero.

Electricity prices are linked to the price of gas

https://www.greeniow.org.uk/why-uk-electricity-prices-are-tied-to-gas/

Going net zero with less reliance on fossil fuels should make energy cheaper.

I think they’re responsible for billing and collecting, but it’s the central government that sets the rates.

Is this tnq?

High rents are probably a factor, however we also have the amongst the highest electricity prices in the world thanks to Net Zero, which is why we are losing all our industry, too. It’s a sad state of affairs watching our economy slowly collapse whilst China is busy building coal fired power stations and producing what we used to produce.

Don't councils set business rates?

My hairdresser closed recently and they said that their business rates and rent was £6K a month before they factored in any other costs such as stylists, energy, shampoo/materials etc.

You have to cut and colour a lot of hair to make a profit on that.

I worked in a cafe during covid (after losing my job from a big firm who pretty much went down the hire and rehire route without comeuppance). The rent they had to find was astronomical and they were tied to the contract for six years (only just got rid of it now, despite the cafe closing years four ago. And the landlord had to approve anyone that they sublet to, and he only seemed to like very naive tenants. You see the same with brewery’s and pub rents.
I have since started my own coffee kiosk type cafe on my own land, so no rent, and no employees. But in the four years I’ve been here my costs at cash and carry or the supermarket have tripled. My prices have gone up 10%. Imagine if I tripled the cost of my coffees - nobody would come. I very nearly closed before Xmas.

Yes. But democracy requires we all get it.