Wetherspoon boss backs Reform pub package – and defends dog policy
Sir Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, has called on hospitality firms to back Reform’s proposed pub support package, arguing it would “utterly transform” the landscape for pubs.
In a stock exchange release, Martin said Reform’s proposals would offer pubs “tax parity” with supermarkets.
“By eliminating the tax differential between supermarkets and the hospitality industry, and restoring margins to devastated businesses, these changes would enable pubs to regain some, or all, of their lost trade,” he said.
Martin pointed to research from Morgan Stanley, which estimated that pubs have lost around 50 per cent of their trade to supermarkets since 2000.
Return of the £3 pint?
Reform’s £2.3bn pub package includes a pledge to cut VAT in the hospitality sector by 10 per cent as well as beer duty by 10 per cent. The party has also promised to reverse Labour’s increase in employers’ national insurance contributions and gradually remove business rates for pubs.
The measures would be funded by reinstating the two-child benefit cap, which the government lifted in last year’s Budget.
As a result of the tax reforms, Martin estimated that pubs could offer a pint at £2.99 and still have a better gross margin than they do at the moment. “There’s no question that this initiative would utterly transform the competitiveness of pubs,” he said.
Martin expressed surprise that the measures had not received a better response from hospitality bosses.
“You would think that this offer from Reform would have been greeted by a crescendo of enthusiasm, ecstasy and support from the licensed trade and its supporters. However, surprisingly, initial support has been underwhelming, at least from the great and the good in the hospitality industry,” he said.
“The principle in question is that the beleaguered hospitality industry needs to get behind whatever organisation or political party promises a fair and equitable tax regime,” Martin concluded.
Martin defends Wetherspoon dog policy
In a separate statement, Martin also defended Wetherspoons’ guide dogs policy after a BBC article alleged that the pub chain could be breaking the law.
In May last year, the FTSE 250 firm introduced a new policy to ask anyone wanting admission with an assistance dog to produce training documentation from Assistance Dogs UK (ADUK).
Wetherspoon has seen a big increase in dog incidents, even though only assistance dogs are allowed. 15 staff were bitten by dogs in 2025, compared to one in 2020.
The interests of those with disabilities need to be protected while, at the same time, employees and the public have to be protected from a substantial increase in dog incidents.
“According to ADUK, pub staff should be asked to make a judgement, after a dog is already in the pub, as to whether it is trained or not. It is inevitable, as a matter of common sense, that ADUK’s advice, if followed, will lead to an increase in dog incidents in pubs, and may already have done so, in the absence of sensible checks in advance of entry,” he said.