UK Hospitality has called on the Government to broaden its relief package for pubs and music venues to the wider hospitality industry.

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Pubs and music venues will get a 15% cut to new business rates bills from April followed by a two-year real-terms freeze, but restaurant and hotels are exempt.

Bars appear to meet the qualifying criteria for the discount, if they “allow free entry”, “allow drinking without requiring food to be consumed” and “permit drinks to be purchased at the bar”, though, it is up to local authorities to determine “those cases where eligibility is unclear”.

Kate Nicholls, chair of UK Hospitality, said: “The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive Budgets. They need to see substantive solutions that genuinely reduce their costs.

“Without that clear action, they will face increasingly tough decisions on business viability, jobs and prices for consumers. Those are costs borne by us all, and I hope the Government delivers on its promise to support the whole hospitality sector.”

CLASS has requested clarification from the Government over the eligibility of bars for the rates discount. 

The Treasury responded that bars and pubs are "very similar in terms of their characteristics" and that local authorities awarding the relief will use "a definition set out in guidance". "This guidance will use the same definition that was used for the previous business rates pubs relief," a spokesperson for the Government department added.