The prime minister said the £100m package would mean the typical pub would save around £1,100 in the next financial year

Iain Hoskins, owner of Ma Pub Group in Liverpool, said that an extra 20% relief on business rates would go some way to “chipping away” at the rising cost but cast doubt on how many venues would be covered by the change.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

The worry has been, obviously, in recent years, I mean, when our venues from last year to this current year got revalued, we saw increases of between 100% and 150% on the rates that we pay.

So that just goes to show how much they went up by. And while 20% – particularly if that 20% is on top of the 15% and other help that’s there – that can be very meaningful for businesses, independent businesses such as mine; I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but the increases were so huge last year that now we’re sort of chipping away at some of those increases.

We’re not actually … getting better value than we had before. We’re still having to find extra money for these business rates. But you know, it is a relief that actually some of that is mitigated quickly. 20% isn’t an insignificant figure.

I’m giving thousands of pubs, clubs and music venues a 20% cut in business rates.

I won’t stand by while these cherished local spaces disappear, replaced by boarded-up windows and ‘For Sale’ signs.