16/09/2025 10:15:00
The Treasury has published a report revealing the Chancellor's plan to fix sudden jumps in business rates, known as 'cliff-edges', which can discourage small business investment and growth. Currently, when a business invests in a second premises, it loses access to all Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR), preventing it from expanding. This means that it would have to pay thousands of pounds more for opening a small outlet in the next village. The report confirms that the government will review how SBRR can support business expansion, potentially lifting growth and living standards. It comes as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, sets out her intentions to go further on legislation to cut red tape and promote deregulation, reports Pub & Bar.
For everyone £1 spent investing in the provision of services and activities in the pub, an average of £8.28 of social value is created, new research has found. Pub is The Hub: Social Value from the not-for-profit organisation confirmed pubs offer social value that supports community cohesion, job security, wellbeing and increased social interaction and resilient communities. It also showed pubs help people overcome social isolation and replace the loss of services in rural and deprived areas, writes Morning Advertiser. This latest report, which was backed by The National Lottery Community Fund, measured the social value delivered by licensees and their pubs through Pub is The Hub Support, to help provide a range of services and activities in their local areas.
Vietnamese restaurant brand Pho will launch its 50th site, later this year, advises Restaurant Online. Within London's Brunswick centre, the site will be hot on the heels of Pho locations in St Albans and Cheshire Oaks. The Patrick Marrinan-backed group has seven sites in its pipeline for 2026. Pho has reported group sales up 11.6% to £79.3m for the year to February 2025, with adjusted EBITDA rising 23% to £8.8m, as the Trispan-backed Vietnamese restaurant brand continues its national rollout. Six new openings supported the performance, with recent launches in Tunbridge Wells and Bluewater trading ahead of expectations.
Sir Hotels has opened its first site in London in Shoreditch, says Boutique Hotelier. Under construction since 2023, Sir Devonshire Square is a new 81-bedroom, restaurant, cocktail bar and private members' club, which is the transformation of a former textile warehouse. The property has now opened as part of the Sir Hotels brand within the Sircle Collection and is situated on Devonshire Square in London's Liverpool Street, 'bridging the gap between the City of London and East London's vibrant Shoreditch'.
The team behind Root will open in Bath next month, taking over the long-vacant Shires Yard site last occupied by Jamie's Italian. It will be the group's largest restaurant to date, spread across two floors with a rooftop terrace overlooking the city, reports Restaurant Online. The site has been vacant since Jamie Oliver's restaurant group collapsed in 2019. Part of Josh and Holly Eggleton's Pony restaurant Group, Root is led by co-patrons Rob Howell and Meg Oakley-Howell. Its first site opened in Bristol's Cargo development in 2017, followed by a restaurant in the Somerset city of Wells in 2022. Both hold Michelin Bib Gourmands.
Tube strikes cause major disruption to London's hospitality as bookings plummet by 67%, writes Caterer, Licensee & Hotelier News.