The ban across England and Wales will be delivered through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, unveiled yesterday (10 July), which also includes a new Community Right to Buy scheme that will give locals first refusal to purchase local assets, such as pubs, when they are put up for sale and be given an extended 12-month period to raise the funding to do so.
“We’re ushering in a new dawn of regional power and bringing decision making to a local level so that no single street or household is left behind and every community thrives,” says Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister.
The Government describes UORR as a means for ‘pitting landlords against businesses’ that can ‘make rents unaffordable’.
It says banning them will ‘help keep small businesses running, boost local economies and job opportunities and help end the blight of vacant high streets and the unacceptable anti-social behaviour that comes with them’.
Trade body UKHospitality has been calling for a UORR ban since the turn of the century.
The previous Labour government committed to implementing a ban in the mid-2000s, before the proposal was derailed due to the financial crash.
The Hospitality Sector Council, which is co-chaired by hospitality leader Karen Jones, has included the ban as a key ask to drive post-Covid recovery.
“Unjust upward-only rent review clauses have been hitting hospitality businesses for years, making rents unnecessarily expensive,” says Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality.
“They have been punishing the high street and constraining investment, and it’s the right move for the Government to ban them completely.
“UKHospitality has been calling for a ban for decades and I’m very pleased that it is now being implemented.
“This ban, alongside business rates reform and efforts to simplify licensing, are critical to cutting costs and red tape for businesses and allow hospitality to drive high street regeneration.”
Nicholls adds that it is also positive that the bill doesn’t include any future tourist tax in England.
“The Government made clear to us that it has no plans to introduce a tax, and it was critical they followed through on that promise,” she continues.
“We expect that commitment to remain throughout the passage of this legislation.”
Nicholls concludes by saying the Government should now take this ‘pragmatic approach’ at the Budget and introduce measures to lower business rates, fix the issue of National Insurance contributions, and cut VAT for the hospitality sector.
“Our businesses are being taxed out and we need to see action at the Budget that allows hospitality to create places where people want to live, work and invest.”