Industry insights

Currently, around 4–7% of UK adults (approximately 2.1–3.7 million people) are using GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro for weight loss, with usage roughly doubling between 2024 and 2025 (KAM). These drugs suppress appetite, meaning users typically eat less and need to make careful food choices to meet their nutritional needs (British Nutrition Foundation).

As a result, when eating out, many are seeking venues that offer healthier options and allow customisation, while research also suggests 65% say they now choose different types of food and are willing to pay a premium for healthier options (KAM).

Venues can respond by offering smaller portions and incorporating more nutrient-dense ingredients such as beans, lean meat, fish, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables. This reflects a broader shift in the UK eating-out market, where growing health awareness extends beyond GLP-1 users, driving demand for dishes that are higher in protein and fibre and lower in sugar, without compromising on flavour (Lumina Intelligence UK Menu & Food Trends Report). The key opportunity for operators will be balancing these nutrient-dense choices with familiar favourites to reflect how consumers’ eating habits are evolving.

The Scottish Government’s decision to reduce business rates for hospitality businesses is a welcome and much-needed step for the sector. Hospitality venues are the backbone of our high streets and communities, and targeted relief like this will help protect jobs, sustain investment and support local economies.

However, this must be seen as just the start. Businesses continue to face significant cost increases across wages, energy, food and drink, and other operating expenses. While this action provides important breathing space, many operators will still be under intense financial pressure in the months ahead.

We hope this signals a sustained commitment to backing hospitality and delivering the longer-term, structural reform needed to create a fair and competitive operating environment for the sector across Scotland.

We note the government’s announcement this week, which will see some pubs, depending on rateable value, receive reduced business rates. However, this relief applies only to pubs, leaving restaurants, hotels, and much of the wider hospitality sector to continue facing the same intense pressures as before.

Pubs play a vital role in the wider supply chain, supporting food and drink suppliers, logistics partners, local producers, and communities, while providing a crucial first step into employment for many.

But crucially, this measure does little more than return pubs to the position they were in prior to the budget, at a time when many were already struggling. In reality, it is less a meaningful benefit and more the removal of additional financial pain, rather than a solution to the sector’s underlying challenges. While welcome, it does not address the structural issues within the business rates system.

Hospitality is far broader than pubs, and the sector urgently needs long-term support to survive and invest in the future. As UKHospitality and other industry voices have stressed, lasting reform of business rates and targeted support are essential for hospitality businesses to remain viable and thrive.

UK farmers deserve our full support. They are the backbone of national food security, ensuring we can feed ourselves with high-quality, traceable produce while reducing reliance on imports. Beyond food, farming sustains rural economies, supports thousands of jobs, and protects the countryside we all value. These are often family-run businesses passed down through generations, operating on tight margins and long hours. Fair, stable policy matters, not just for farmers, but for everyone who depends on a secure, resilient food system.

The HFFS advertising restrictions introduced will reduce the prominence of less healthy food and drink advertising, marking a positive step for public health. While brand advertising remains exempt, meaning companies selling predominantly less healthy products will still be visible, they will need to shift away from promoting specific products, creating a clear incentive for change.

Products are assessed using the Nutrient Profiling Model, which balances positive and negative nutrients. This encourages brands with products close to the threshold to reformulate in order to fall outside the restrictions. Even modest changes, applied at scale, can have a significant impact on population health, and I hope this drives a new wave of reformulation, innovation and more responsible, health-led marketing across the industry.

Like last year, today’s budget once again gives little to be positive about. The 5p discount to hospitality and leisure business rates is unlikely to bring much benefit, against a backdrop of rising costs from increases to the minimum wage, and last year’s hikes in employer National Insurance contributions. Whilst we wait to see the full details, as a business, the increases on business rates to large warehouses and the removal of National Insurance relief on salary sacrifice pension contributions over £2,000 will have a significant impact on the costs within our supply chain. It is clear that the government still does not fully recognise the importance of business growth or the vital role that hospitality, foodservice and wholesaler sectors play in our economy and society, and the acute nature of the challenges they face.

The latest figures from UK Hospitality reveal that of the 164,641 job losses across the UK since last October’s Budget, almost 89,000 have come from hospitality alone. This means our sector accounts for more than half of all redundancies – a stark reminder that pubs, restaurants, bars and hotels are being pushed beyond breaking point. While we welcome recent government steps, such as the 40% rates relief for 2025/26 and plans to consider lower multipliers from 2026, these measures are not enough to offset the tax increases and rising costs that have disproportionately hit hospitality.

We support UK Hospitality’s call for urgent action at the November Budget. The Chancellor must urgently consider applying the maximum discount to the multiplier for hospitality properties under £500,000, pause measures that would drive up costs further, and bring forward targeted reliefs to safeguard jobs. Without decisive intervention, more businesses will close and communities across the UK will lose not only vital local venues but also the livelihoods they sustain.

At Bidfood, we welcome the government’s commitment to building a more secure, sustainable, and resilient food system. Now more than ever, it is vital to rethink how we produce, manufacture, distribute, and sell food to create a fairer system for all. Addressing today’s urgent challenges will require real commitment and a coordinated strategy that ensures food is secure, nutritious, sustainable, and affordable for families now and for future generations. We are proud to continue playing our part in shaping a food system that works for people, businesses, and the planet.

As one of the largest suppliers to the pub sector, we stand firmly behind publicans as we approach the Autumn Budget.

We urge the government to urgently address the severe challenges currently faced across hospitality, and in particular within the pub industry.

Publicans need a fairer and more balanced tax framework – one that enables them to turn sales into sustainable profits, attract ongoing investment, and safeguard vital community spaces.

The pub sector continues to provide an essential pathway into employment for young and talented people. To protect these opportunities, and the jobs and working hours they create, we call for meaningful policy change from government.

You may have seen that in recent months meat prices in the UK have risen sharply, especially beef which is up 30 to 40% compared to last year. This is due to a combination of factors including reduced supply, increased demand globally, higher costs such as National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Insurance (NI), weather issues, feed and fuel costs, and post-Brexit tariffs.

Due to these challenges, especially the rise in NI and NMW, it is clear the farming industry needs support and investment to survive. Previous removal of inheritance tax benefits and subsidies has hurt farmers, evidenced by over 30 farms being forced to close in Scotland alone over the past 12-18 months. There is hope for support in the Autumn budget, but for now it remains a volatile environment.