Husband and wife Nick and Briony De’Ath run the Red Lion pub in Bishopgate and could not believe their eyes when they discovered the rateable value for the building is set to increase from £19,750 to £100,000 in April.

The Red Lion pub in Bishopgate, Norwich (Image: Red Lion Bishopgate)

It comes as the chancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of delivering a budget of “smoke and mirrors” after it emerged that pubs, hotels, shops and restaurants now face much higher business rates next year.

In the House of Commons last Wednesday, Ms Reeves announced she was introducing the “lowest tax rates since 1991”, permanently lowering rates for more than 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties.

But the Eastern Daily Press revealed last week that the end of the 40pc discount on business rates, which many firms in the sector have benefited from since the pandemic, and a high assessment of the value of their properties used to calculate rates, will see many pay tens of thousands more each year.

The chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the budget last Wednesday (Image: James Manning/PA Wire)

The Red Lion’s rateable value is set to rise by 400pc in April (Image: Gov.uk)

“We’ll have to find a way through this, but we were taken aback by how this was handled,” Mr De’Ath said.

Business rates are a tax charged on most non-domestic properties. They are calculated based on a property’s ‘rateable value’ – an estimate of its annual rental value, set by the government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

“While Rachel Reeves was talking about changes to the business rates multiplier, the VOA quietly dropped the new pub valuations,” Mr De’Ath added.

“Across our seven sites in Norwich, all but one have gone up a lot, and one has jumped fivefold.”

Nick and Briony De’Ath run The Red Lion Bishopgate in Norwich (Image: Danielle Booden)

The Red Lion Bishopgate (Image: Red Lion Bishopgate)

The De’Ath’s also operate the Unthank Arms, Trafford Arms, Warwick Arms, Chambers Cocktail Company, Whalebone and the William and Florence.

“We completely understand that the system needs updating, especially for hospitality, but it does feel a bit like saying one thing publicly and doing another in the background,” he said.

“For a lot of pubs, this is going to mean a big increase in costs at a really difficult time.

“We just hope there’s a fairer, more transparent approach coming.”