Andy Burnham has found a novel way to back the local pub: make the digital marketplace help pick up the tab.

The UK prime minister on Thursday promised pubs, social clubs, and live music venues in England a 20 percent cut in business rates from April 2027, a package worth around £100 million a year that the government says will benefit nearly 32,000 venues. Alongside it, ministers announced plans to squeeze more unpaid tax from sellers using online marketplaces.

Rather than simply footing the bill from the public purse, the government says it will consult on extending online marketplaces' VAT liability, making them more responsible for stopping third-party sellers from dodging tax. Any extra revenue raised would be funneled back into the business rates system.

"The Government will also crack down on businesses that sell through online marketplaces but do not comply with their tax obligations, putting them at an unfair advantage over businesses that play by the rules," the announcement said. "Revenue raised from these reforms will be reinvested in improvements to the business rates system."

The details remain hazy, but the direction of travel is clear enough. Ministers want marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Temu to do more to ensure that merchants using their platforms are paying the VAT they owe, rather than leaving HMRC to chase thousands of individual sellers after the fact.

It's the latest chapter in Burnham's increasingly public campaign to make the winners of online retail shoulder more of the cost of keeping Britain's struggling high streets alive. Earlier this month, he argued there was a case for charging higher business rates on the vast fulfillment warehouses that have sprung up around towns and cities.

"I believe there is a case for higher business rates on warehouses and the major developments we see on the outskirts of our cities, so we can cut business rates for pubs," Burnham said, as reported by The Independent. 

Whether warehouse owners, online marketplaces, or both ultimately end up paying remains unanswered at this point. The announcement contains no concrete tax proposals beyond the launch of the consultation, with business rates reforms expected to emerge at the Budget.

For pubs, it's a tax cut. For online marketplaces, it's the start of what could become a much bigger compliance headache. ®