Jeremy Clarkson has revealed the swingeing costs involved in keeping his Farmer’s Dog pub open – as he blamed ‘Starmer’s Britain’ for pushing up prices.
The TV presenter says it is ‘nigh-on impossible’ to make profits at the venue in Oxfordshire despite it being rammed within an hour of first opening in August.
He has outlined the burden imposed by a blend of thefts by customers, heating bills, parking and traffic marshal costs and payments to staff which have been hiked by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
In her Budget on October 30, Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased NI contributions from employers on wages from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, starting in April.
She also announced that the National Living Wage – for those aged 21 and over – would rise from £11.44 to £12.21 an hour that same month.
Pub groups have been among her critics, warning venues were already under pressure amid widespread closures and that many more would now go bust.
And former Top Gear host Clarkson, 64, has expressed his dismay at the heavy price he has to pay to keep his bar up and running despite attracting plenty of custom at its location in Burford, not far from his Diddly Squat Farm.
He described behind the scenes at the Farmer’s Dog as a ‘total disaster’, with not only glasses being stolen but also toilets breaking down and traffic chaos outside.
He wrote in his latest Times column how the volume of theft was ‘extraordinary’, saying: ‘People seem to have it in their heads that if they come in for a pint they are entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served. Last Sunday 104 went missing.
‘And that cost must be added to the £100 a day we spend on fuel for the generator, the £400 a week it costs to provide warmth on the terrace and the £27,000 a month we must spend on parking and traffic marshals to keep the council off our back.
‘And that’s before you get to the cost of employing people in Starmer’s Britain these days.’
Clarkson – who last week welcomed Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch to the Farmer’s Dog – told readers that running the pub required ‘much effort’ for ‘little money’ in return.
Clarkson added: ‘It’s galling to see how much effort is required to make so little money on the farm. It’s worse at the pub.
‘The customers are coming. There’s no problem there. But turning their visits into a profit is nigh-on impossible.’
He said that ‘behind the scenes, everything is a total disaster’ – though added: ‘The fact is that when you go there you just wouldn’t know.’
But the long list of problems only continue for Clarkson, who shared details of a toilet incident which required a ‘whole team’ of chemically trained hazmat engineers to tackle.
Recalling a recent occurrence, where one of employees called wailing on the phone after discovering a ‘horror’ bathroom ‘accident’, the presenter hired a team of specialists – a cost he had never envisioned listing on his business plans.
The farmer and his partner Lisa have also encountered some barriers in the run-up to Christmas, as her goose night failing to sell out and only managing to shift five turkeys after ordering 40.
But, despite the hurdles, Clarkson insists he is more determined than ever to make his pub work.
‘It’s warm and there’s a fire and the staff are friendly and young and happy. It’s a proper, traditional pub,’ he said.
‘By which I mean you’ll love it, and I’ll lose a fortune and develop a skin disease from the stress of running it.’
Clarkson is not along among pub owners in condemning the Government and Ms Reeves’ Budget measures which she says are necesary to help tackle what she calls a £22billion ‘black hole’ left by the previous Conservative government.
She was criticised last month by the chairman of pub chain Fuller, Smith and Turner, and also warned by the British Retail Consortium that job losses and higher prices were ‘inevitable’.
Michael Turner, whose family have run the pub chain since 1845, called the National Insurance raid a ‘direct attack’ on industries such as hospitality that are ‘the lifeblood of our economy, whilst leaving the large City institutions, that can afford to pay their share, almost completely untouched’.
He added: ‘The unintended consequences of these actions will be to drive inflation higher, put pressure on wages, and will drive many businesses to the wall.’
Government data previously revealed that more than 50 pubs a month on average were lost in England and Wales during the first half of 2024.
Real estate intelligence firm Altus Group said the overall number of pubs, including those which were vacant or being offered to let, fell to 39,096 at the end of June.
The figure is down 305 versus the end of 2023 when it was at 39,401 – with the pubs either having closed down, been demolished or turned into something else.
And Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, told today: ‘Jeremy Clarkson is absolutely correct in what he’s saying – so many owners are finding the situation unsustainable right now.
‘Small and medium businesses and independents are looking especially vulnerable, as they don’t have that cash fluidity they need.’
He warned that many operations faced closing in January and February, fearing the impact of April’s changes to NI contributions and wages which could add between £30,000 and £100,000 to annual costs.
Mr Kill added: ‘Owners know they will have another level of costs in April and many people will say, they just can’t keep going on like this.’
Products on offer at Clarkson’s pub to help boost coffers have included mechanics hand soap at £6.80, Jeremy’s Hot Seed Beer mustard at £6.80 a jar, Habanero Chilli Chutney also at £6.80.
A black and white tin mug bearing the name of Diddly Squat cost £14 while a jar of honey – or Bee juice as Clarkson calls it – was on sale for £12.
Loaves of sour dough bread retailed at £5.95 with a small loaf costing £3.95. There were even day-old loaves on sale at half the usual price.
One of the most popular items was a candle in a tin with the less than flattering name of ‘This smells like B******ks’.