UK Hospitality, which represents the wider sector, said the measures “address an acute challenge facing pubs.
“The reality remains that we still have restaurants and hotels facing severe challenges from successive Budgets,” chair Kate Nicholls said.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said it would “stave off the immediate financial threat posed by accelerating business costs and will help keep the doors open for many”.
BBPA chief executive Emma McClarkin says landlords across the country will “breathe a sigh of relief”, but the organisation’s focus will now turn to long-term reforms to business rates.
Bosses from across the hospitality sector had warned that, despite tweaks in the chancellor’s November Budget, they were facing an increase in their business rates bills from April.
This is because, although the government has lowered the multipliers – a figure used to work out how much businesses pay in rates – many pubs, restaurants and hotels are still seeing their bills go up due to their properties being revalued, and the new values were often much higher.
On top of the rise in property valuations, small retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in receipt of discounts that have been in force since the pandemic, which dropped from 75% to 40% in November, will no longer receive this rebate from April.
Industry body UK Hospitality warned the average pub’s business rates bill would increase by 76% over the next three years without a package of support.
The government had already announced a £4.3bn fund to help businesses as rates relief is phased out.
Tuesday’s additional package means that three in four pubs will see their business rates bills fall or stay the same next year, the government said.