Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Pub" is a fairly common term throughout the world. But "pub that needs you " made it pretty obvious that it was about pubs in England.
Did it? I put my postcode in and got nothing. It took browsing the map to discover it had no results for Scotland at all.
Find a pub that needs you
111–120 of 365 posts
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Along a similar note, I hate when a Bar is labelled as a "Pub" and doesn't serve food. IMO, in the US, if it's labelled a "pub" it should serve food.
Come to Virginia, where it's outright illegal for any establishment serving alcohol to not also serve food (and not only must food be served, it must account for at least 45% of revenue).
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did it? I put my postcode in and got nothing. It took browsing the map to discover it had no results for Scotland at all.
Yes. Being on the other side of the world, I've only ever heard of efforts to save English pubs. Thus, without more details, one knows that is what is being referred to. Perhaps Scotland has the same kind of movement happening at the local level, but something on a global website implies global context.
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#114Wow a fantastic independent pub near where I used to live in London is seeing its rateable value go up 480%! This website really puts the headlines in to a nice local perspective. It seems like the taxes only go up while the services get worse in the UK, although I’ve been away for 5 years now so maybe things improved.
Rateable value is based on what the market prices would be to rent that space. So, somebody is doing nicely apparently.
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Along a similar note, I hate when a Bar is labelled as a "Pub" and doesn't serve food. IMO, in the US, if it's labelled a "pub" it should serve food.
Come to Virginia, where it's outright illegal for any establishment serving alcohol to not also serve food (and not only must food be served, it must account for at least 45% of revenue).
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#116Re: Find a pub that needs you
#117Would be much more helpful if it indicated literally anywhere on the homepage that this was specific to the UK. Being a .com as opposed to a .co.uk, you can't even tell from the domain.
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bars and pubs aren't really competing against the store or restaurants, they're competing against you drinking alone or with only close friends. If stepping in to have a beer and shoot the shit would cost a significant chunk of a day's wages, you just won't do it, but if I can buy more beer with an hours wages than I can drink in an hour, it's not a bad time.
Weatherspoons charge under £3 for a pint in town. That's 15 minutes at minimum wage. Beer was far more expensive 25 years ago - £1.60 in 2000 in the student pub when I first started buying my own beer, that was about half an hour at minimum wage. On the cost side: Wages are higher, energy costs more, rent is higher (because if the pub can't operate the owner can get planning permission to convert it to a private dwel…
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Existing tax. Proposed new calculation for the "value" of business property, disproportionately affecting pubs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e57dexly1o > In her November Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves scaled back business rate discounts that have been in force since the pandemic from 75% to 40% - and announced that there would be no discount at all from April. That, combined with big upward adjustments to…
Ah, interesting. So it sounds like the tax roughly scales with property value (or size). And pubs are probably a "poor use of land" because the revenue per square foot is not particularly high?
You pay a percentage of the hypothetical rent as tax. There is a lower rate if you're a small business, and there are also tax reliefs for various reasons (charity, partial building occupation, etc.)
But pubs have been in trouble for quite some time: https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2025/05/27/numbe...
Pubs have high costs, small margins and customers are extremely price-sensitive. What pubs are generally asking for is more types of relief, because what we tend to see is pubs close, people in the area become more isolated, and the building remains empty for years thereafter. [] Pubs appreciated the post-COVID relief, but tax rates are about to shoot up.
[] fun fact: if the building is vacant, its landlord must pay rates as if it's 100% occupied. Hence this brazen scheme where a man puts a snail farm in every room so you can pay the rates of an agricultural enterprise: https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/04/...
Re: Find a pub that needs you
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Does Britain really need?" has been responsible for the gutting of so much of what used to make Britain a nice place to live over the last 20 years. You can say she same about public libraries, local bus routes, civic architecture, arts funding, youth services, maintenance budgets. The damage has been incalculable.
You won't find any argument from me on all those other things. But pubs are a weird place to draw the line.