As voting is underway in this year’s Best Pub competition, I’ve been reflecting on the many conversations I’ve had with hospitality businesses across our area over the past two years.

Last year’s worthy winner shows what a pub can mean to a village when it is given the chance to succeed.

But there are landlords, café owners and restaurateurs in Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere, Liphook and our villages telling me the same thing: they want to invest, to hire and to keep their doors open - but government is making that harder, not easier.

That is why Andy Burnham’s approach to business rates has been so disappointing.

During the Makerfield by-election he promised a 20 percent cut for hospitality. Within his first week as Prime Minister, that promise had already been scaled back.

The relief now applies only to pubs and clubs still facing increases of up to 95 percent under his own government’s policies, even after the reduction.

This partial cut is simply damage limitation for a problem of Labour’s own making.It also leaves out cafés, restaurants, hotels and the wider hospitality sector that underpin our high streets.

The British Chambers of Commerce has warned that many smaller firms still face an existential threat, with concern just over business rates rising sharply in recent months.

There is a wider cost too. A review commissioned by Labour’s own government found that higher taxes and increased regulation are making it harder for young people to get a first foothold in work, particularly in hospitality and retail – sectors that have long been an entry point into employment.

Cutting business rates matters, but it counts for little if pubs and cafés cannot afford to take on the next generation.

That is why Conservatives are campaigning to save the summer job by cutting the red tape that holds businesses back from giving young people their first break.

Labour’s approach also exposes an uncomfortable truth: this partial rate cut is being funded by shifting costs onto other businesses.

Without meaningful welfare reform to tackle economic inactivity, these trade-offs and half-measures will continue.

Conservatives would take a different approach: 100 percent business rates relief for 250,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with bills below £110,000, a simpler relationship with HMRC, easier access to business banking, a fresh look at IR35, and business coaching in schools to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Our pubs are at the heart of our villages and high streets. They deserve a government that backs them properly – not one that U-turns its way to a headline.

Please do cast your vote in the Best Pub competition, and back your local this summer.