Budget 2025 leaves Britain’s curry restaurants facing a “triple squeeze”
Business rates hikes, rising wage bills and tougher migrant worker rules risk hollowing out the UK’s curry industry, despite headline claims of support for hospitality.
November 2025
Britain’s curry restaurants are warning that the 2025 Budget and recent immigration reforms could deliver a triple squeeze on the sector – through higher business rates, rising wage bills and tighter rules on recruiting skilled migrant chefs.
Trade body UKHospitality has already warned that wage rises, new “holiday taxes” and steep increases in rateable values are “wiping out” the 5p business rates discount announced for hospitality, pushing up costs and keeping inflation higher for longer.UKHospitality+1
For curry restaurants – which tend to be small, family-run and heavily reliant on skilled kitchen teams – the combination of tax policy and migration reform could be even more severe.
A business rates “discount” that still raises bills
The Chancellor has confirmed that from April 2026, retail, hospitality and leisure premises will move onto permanently lower business-rates multipliers, set 5p below the standard English multipliers. This is being sold as a long-term boost for the high street, funded by higher rates on large warehouses and other high-value commercial property.GOV.UK+2Bishop Fleming+2
However, the detail tells a different story for many restaurants:
From 2025/26, hospitality enjoyed a temporary 40% Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief, on top of the existing multiplier.GOV.UK+1
From 2026/27, that 40% relief is scrapped and replaced with a 5p discount in the pound on the multiplier – at the same time as new, higher rateable values come into force.
UKHospitality’s analysis suggests average rateable values will rise by 14% for restaurants and cafés, 30% for pubs and 76% for accommodation businesses.UKHospitality+1
The Government’s own factsheet shows how this plays out in practice. In 2025/26, an independent pub with a £50,000 rateable value paid around £14,970 after applying the 40% relief. Under the new system, a similar property facing the same rateable value but only benefiting from a 5p multiplier discount would see its bill increase to around £22,450 – a jump of roughly 50%.GOV.UK
For a typical 60–80-cover curry restaurant in London or a busy town centre, the direction of travel is the same: headlines talk about cuts; the reality is higher fixed property taxes.
Rising wage bills – with no matching relief
Budget 2025 also confirmed further increases to the National Living Wage from April 2026:
National Living Wage (21+) rising from £12.21 to £12.71 per hour – a 4.1% increase.
18–20 rate rising to £10.85 (up 8.5%).
16–17 and apprentice rate rising to £8.00 (up 6%).GOV.UK+2Bishop Fleming+2
For low-margin, labour-intensive restaurant businesses, these rises would normally be cushioned by targeted reliefs – for example, a reduced VAT rate on meals eaten out, or a much deeper cut in business rates.
Instead, curry restaurants now face:
Higher hourly pay across the whole team, including kitchen porters, waiters and delivery drivers.
Additional costs from tax changes, such as higher National Insurance on some salary-sacrifice arrangements, and other “holiday taxes” highlighted by sector analysts.MoneyWeek+1
No meaningful new offsetting support beyond the 5p rates discount that is already being eroded by revaluation.
In practice, this pushes restaurateurs towards a choice they do not want to make: raise prices again, cut hours, or cut staff.
Migrant worker visas: a higher bar and a shrinking pipeline
Alongside tax policy, the government is in the middle of the biggest overhaul of the legal migration system in decades, designed explicitly to reduce net migration and push employers to recruit and train domestically.GOV.UK+2GOV.UK+2
Key changes that matter for the curry industry include:
Higher Skilled Worker salary thresholds
From April 2024 the general salary threshold for most Skilled Worker visas jumped from £26,200 to £38,700per year.Richmond Chambers+2House of Commons Library+2
From 22 July 2025, that threshold for new Skilled Worker applicants increased again to £41,700. Existing Skilled Workers on older visas now face a general threshold of £31,300 when they extend.Staff Immigration+1
These figures are far above what many small curry restaurants can sustainably pay outside central London, especially once National Insurance, pension contributions and unsocial hours are factored in.
A shrinking Immigration Salary List
The old Shortage Occupation List has been replaced by a more restrictive Immigration Salary List (ISL), offering only limited discounts: roles on the ISL can be sponsored at £33,400 instead of £41,700, or the higher “going rate” where applicable.Richmond Chambers+2GOV.UK+2
The list has already been cut back once and is due to be reviewed again, with the government signalling that lower-skilled and many sub-degree roles will no longer qualify in future.House of Commons Library+2GOV.UK+2
Raising the skills bar back to graduate level
The 2025 immigration white paper proposes restricting the Skilled Worker route to jobs at RQF Level 6 (graduate level) and above, reversing the post-Brexit expansion to RQF Level 3.Free Movement+1
That shift is critical for hospitality. Many specialist chef roles – including tandoori specialists and regional curry chefs – are skilled and require years of training, but do not fit neatly into graduate-only classifications.
Taken together, these reforms risk closing off the main legal route to recruit experienced overseas chefs just as domestic training pipelines remain weak.
For many curry restaurants, especially those outside London who rely on one or two key chefs on visas, this is an existential threat rather than a marginal policy tweak.
The combined impact: a “two-tier economy” for the high street
UKHospitality has warned that the Budget risks creating a “two-tier economy”, with bricks-and-mortar hospitality businesses carrying one of the heaviest tax burdens in the UK.UKHospitality+1
For the UK’s curry sector, that “two-tier” reality is already visible:
High fixed costs: rising energy bills, suppliers pushing through increases, and now higher business rates.
Rising wage floors: mandatory pay rises outpacing what many local markets will tolerate in menu prices.
Restricted access to skilled labour: visa salary thresholds that outstrip what most curry restaurants can realistically pay, combined with a deliberate narrowing of eligible occupations.
This is not just about the survival of individual businesses. Britain’s curry restaurants:
Support tens of thousands of jobs, particularly for young people and local part-time workers.
Anchor high streets and neighbourhood parades that are already fragile.
Represent a unique British culinary success story, built largely by first- and second-generation immigrant families.
When the numbers stop working for curry restaurants, communities lose more than somewhere to eat – they lose part of their local identity and history.
What the curry industry is calling for
Leaders across the curry sector are therefore urging the Government to re-balance its approach, so that the cost of reforms is not borne disproportionately by small hospitality businesses.
Key asks include:
A deeper, time-limited business rates discount for hospitality
Increase the RHL discount beyond 5p in the pound for restaurants and pubs, or extend a meaningful percentage-based relief, to avoid rates bills jumping by 40–50% overnight after revaluation.GOV.UK+2Newmark+2
A dedicated hospitality track within the Skilled Worker system
Maintain a realistic route for specialist chefs and key kitchen roles, with:
Salary thresholds aligned with actual market pay for those roles.
Clear, transparent criteria for eligibility.
Protections against abuse, without effectively closing the route.
Joined-up policy on wages and tax
If the National Living Wage is to continue rising ahead of inflation, there must be offsetting measures such as:
Targeted cuts to VAT on meals eaten out; or
Larger employer National Insurance reliefs for sectors with high staff-to-turnover ratios; or
Grant support for accredited training programmes that help upskill domestic workers into chef roles.
A structured partnership on domestic skills
Work with the curry industry on:
Apprenticeships and vocational training for curry chefs.
Fast-track accreditation for existing overseas chefs to train UK staff.
Regional skills academies in areas with high hospitality demand.
Industry comment
“This Budget tells curry restaurants we’re getting a ‘permanent tax cut’ – then quietly takes away the relief that was actually keeping many of us afloat. At the same time, visa rules are being tightened so far that most independent restaurants simply won’t be able to bring in the specialist chefs they need.
Britain’s curry industry has always paid its way. We are not asking for special treatment, just a fair balance: recognise the tax we already pay, and don’t cut off our labour supply before a proper domestic training pipeline is in place.”
Jeffrey Ali - Editor-at-Large of Spice Business and Founder, British Curry Guide