Wetherspoons Slashes Prices in One-Day Tax Protest
This week, pub-goers across the UK and Ireland are being given a rare treat, as JD Wetherspoon has announced that it will cut the prices of food and drink for one day only. The move isn’t just about cheap pints and affordable meals, though—it’s part of a bigger campaign to shine a light on what the company sees as unfair tax treatment in the hospitality industry.
On Thursday, Wetherspoon’s 794 pubs will reduce prices by 7.5%. To put that into perspective, if you normally spend £10, your bill will come down to £9.25. The idea is to give customers a glimpse of what pub prices might look like if the government adjusted VAT rules for hospitality venues.
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Currently, pubs, restaurants, and cafes have to pay 20% VAT on food and drink sold for consumption on their premises. Supermarkets, on the other hand, don’t have to add VAT to most of their food and drink products when those items are bought for home use. This creates what Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin has long argued is a massive imbalance. According to him, supermarkets can use that tax advantage to subsidise alcohol prices, while pubs are left struggling under higher costs.
Martin has made it clear that he sees this as one of the biggest threats to the pub industry. He has urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to reduce VAT on hospitality to 12.5%. He argues that such a move would not only level the playing field with supermarkets but would also allow pubs to lower prices permanently and even create new jobs in the sector.
It’s not the first time Wetherspoons has staged this kind of protest. Over the years, Martin has repeatedly used short-term discounts as a way of illustrating how much of a difference a tax cut could make. While many customers see it simply as a welcome bargain day, for the company it’s very much a political statement aimed directly at the Treasury.
The timing of this one-day price cut is also worth noting. The hospitality industry has been under pressure for years, first with rising energy bills, then with the fallout from the pandemic, and more recently with food and drink inflation that shows little sign of easing. For many pubs, keeping prices down while covering costs has become increasingly difficult. By highlighting this tax disparity, Wetherspoons hopes to push the government to take action that could ease that burden.
So, if you’re planning on heading to the pub this Thursday, you’ll get more change in your pocket than usual. But behind that cheaper pint or plate of food lies a much bigger debate—one about the future of pubs, fairness in taxation, and whether the government is willing to step in to support an industry that has been part of British life for centuries.
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