The Labour government has helped to push Brighton’s nightlife to the brink – and the 20 per cent business rates cut is too little, too late as more venues close.
It is the government that has helped to create the crisis now facing operators, with another LGBT+ venue, R-Bar, closing its doors, following the closure announcement from Charles Street Tap.
And venues such as Legends have publicly warned about the unprecedented financial pressures facing night-time operators in the area.
Ministers cannot claim to be protecting the sector while simultaneously imposing policies that make it increasingly expensive and difficult to operate.
Brighton’s nightlife businesses are facing a perfect storm of higher taxation, business rates, employment costs, energy bills, licensing pressures and insurance costs and ever-increasing regulation.
Many venues are operating on wafer-thin margins, with some already forced to close.
The business rates system itself is fundamentally unfair to nightlife businesses because it can penalise venues based on the assumed rental value of their premises rather than the profitability of the business.
You cannot keep increasing the cost of doing business and then pretend that a 20 per cent reduction in one tax bill fixes everything.
The impact is particularly serious in Brighton and Hove where pubs, clubs, LGBT+ venues and live music spaces are a major part of the city’s economy, tourism and cultural identity.
Brighton and Hove Liberal Democrats are calling for
- a fundamental review of business rates for pubs, clubs, social clubs and live music venues
- a system that reflects the actual economic viability of a business, rather than simply the value attributed to its premises
- an assessment of the cumulative impact of taxation, employment costs, business rates and regulation on nightlife businesses
- long-term certainty for the sector rather than short-term measures followed by further cost increases
- urgent action to prevent further closures of venues that are economically, socially and culturally important to Brighton and Hove
Brighton’s nightlife does not need another sticking plaster. It needs a government that understands how these businesses work – and policies that give them a fighting chance to survive.
Robert Brown is a Brighton and Hove Liberal Democrat activist in the Kemp Town area.
