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It’s starting to feel like the government is quietly determined to kill the pub.

Not with one single decision. But with a slow, relentless squeeze. Rising taxes. Rising wages. Rising energy bills. Shrinking support. And almost no understanding of what pubs actually mean to communities like Manchester.

British adman Rory Sutherland puts it simply. “Friendship and social connection are fundamental to human wellbeing and longevity.”

Loneliness is an epidemic. And the pub is one of the oldest and last remaining spaces built specifically for people to come together.

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He continued “A pub is a private business. But it is also a public good.”

If another clothes shop opens or closes, it barely changes anything. You can buy clothes online. You cannot replace a pub. It is irreplaceable.

He concluded with LBC: “The pub is a uniquely British cultural achievement that no other country has truly replicated.”

Yet we tax it like it’s disposable.

When you buy a £6 pint in a city like Manchester, around £1 goes straight to VAT. That leaves £5. About £1.50 covers the cost of the beer. Around 60p goes in beer duty.

Wages account for roughly 25 percent of what remains. A large chunk of that disappears immediately into PAYE and National Insurance.

Around 20 percent is swallowed by the running costs of the pub. Cleaning. Security. Insurance. Music licences. Banking. Advertising. The basics needed just to open the doors.

Fifteen percent goes on rent to the landlord.

Utilities take another slice. Gas, electric and water. Even here, climate levies are added.

Business rates take around 2 percent, with major increases expected from April 2026.

By the time everyone else has been paid, the pub owner is left with about 25p. If that becomes profit, 6p goes in corporation tax. If they pay themselves, another 6p goes in dividend tax.

That leaves the person keeping the pub alive with roughly 13p from £6. And the government takes about £2.44.

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London publican and promoter Rob Star puts it bluntly. He has no problem paying tax. But when you tax an industry to the point where it cannot survive, nobody wins. No pubs. No jobs. No tax revenue at all.

In Manchester, that reality is already biting.

Mark Wrigley, owner of the iconic Atlas Bar, says independent bars are being pushed to the brink while chains are better placed to absorb the pressure. A cost-of-living crisis is already tightening customers’ budgets. Now government policy is piling more weight onto businesses that never fully recovered from Covid, lockdowns and record inflation.

Higher employers’ National Insurance. A lower threshold for paying it. A higher minimum wage. Reduced business rates support.

For Atlas Bar, that means at least £28,000 a year added to costs.

Staff already make up around 35 percent of turnover. National Insurance changes alone could wipe out a quarter of operating profit. To cover it, Mark would need to add 30 to 40p to the price of a pint. But there is a limit to what people can afford.

“It’s not just a job,” he says. “It’s who I am. It’s heartbreaking to think we could lose everything we’ve built.”

TV chef and pub owner Tom Kerridge, who previously ran The Bull & Bear restaurant inside Manchester’s Stock Exchange Hotel, captured the human side of this perfectly talking to BBC.

He described it as a life built around love for the place, not money. A life where the pub isn’t something you visit for work, it is your work, your home and your identity all rolled into one.

“Most landlords live above their pubs and spend their lives inside them. They’re doing 70 or 80 hours a week. Opening up, changing barrels, taking deliveries, fixing problems, keeping everything moving. It’s hard graft and it’s done because they care.

“If someone is taking home £30k or £50k a year, they’re doing well. That’s for running a business that becomes the heart of a community.”

And then comes the moment when it all stops making sense.

“When a £74k business rates bill lands, it changes everything. It suddenly feels impossible. You start asking yourself why you’re even doing it.”

For Tom, that’s when the damage goes beyond finances.

“They’re spaces that create energy, they’re good, they’re great. We all use hospitality from start to finish, whether it’s coffee shops, sandwich shops, pubs and restaurants, or whether it’s just the local, they’re all intrinsic to society.

“But when landlords are under constant pressure and there’s no support from government, it makes people seriously question why they’re even doing it.”

This is what gets lost in spreadsheets and budgets. Pubs are not just places that sell alcohol. They are places where friendships form. Where loneliness softens. Where communities breathe.

If pubs create public good, then they deserve public protection.

A targeted tax break for struggling pubs would not be charity. It would be an investment. In wellbeing. In culture. In community. In the soul of our cities.

Because when a pub closes, something far bigger than a business is lost.

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