Owners of Clockhouse Pub in Harlow at centre of controversy over furloughing staff

Business / Sun 26th Apr 2020 at 10:57am

THE OWNERS OF The Clockhouse Pub in Harlow have taken millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash and furloughed 16,500 staff, despite being based in the Cayman Islands reports The Sun.

Stonegate Pubs, which also owns Slug & Lettuce, Walkabout and Yates, has used government schemes while smaller businesses struggle.

The Clockhouse is situated in the Market Square.

The company has paid no corporation tax in the UK citing “exceptional costs” which included buying other businesses and bonuses.

The British Pub Confederation said public cash was not meant for “structures that make lots of money”.

Its Chair, Greg Mulholland, wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to highlight how big firms are taking advantage of the schemes designed to help curb smaller businesses going bust.

In the letter, he said: “It surely cannot be the intention of the Govt for the grants provided to pubs to be funnelled into such offshore companies based in tax havens.”

Speaking to The Sun he added: “People should only be accessing this money to survive this unprecedented period – that applies to everyone.

“And I’m not prepared for my taxes to be spent on structures that are propping up rich people getting richer.”

Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove, who sits on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said: “A few companies have screwed the system by avoiding tax when the going is good, but have come running to the government in this crisis.”

Stonegate said it filed UK corporation tax returns.

A spokesperson said: “Stonegate is a Cayman incorporated company and is a tax resident in the United Kingdom.

“The company files UK corporation tax returns on an annual basis as well as paying all UK employment tax and associated costs, last year contributing over £300 million.

YH understands that Stonegate have deferred all rents and are giving grants to their publicans.

2 Comments for Owners of Clockhouse Pub in Harlow at centre of controversy over furloughing staff:

jarrett

2020-04-26 12:08:06

Another one to blacklist along with Amazon and anything made in PRC

MO

2021-11-10 20:45:01

“We also invest in the region of £80 million each year in maintaining and refurbishing our pubs and bars, employ over 16,500 people and support many more local businesses within our communities.” This is an interesting statement. The property next door is also owned by them and has sat empty for about a decade. I looked around it intending to open a community space there. It was in such a state of disrepair (bird feathers and faeces everywhere). I made an offer based on the amount of refurb that was required and they chose to go with a convenience store even though they knew my project would benefit the area. They did not keep the property in a good state of repair and they did not support the community in this case. Still 6 months later no works have begun on that property.