UK Budget 2025 and your restaurant: how to protect margins and win in 2026

The Autumn Budget 2026 in plain English for restaurant owners

1. Wages are going up, again

From April 2026:

• National living wage for age 21 and over rises to £12.71 an hour
• 18 to 20-year-olds rise to £10.85 an hour
• Under 18s and apprentices rise to £8.00 an hour

UKHospitality estimates this will add around £1.4 billion of extra wage cost across the sector.

What this means for you

• Every hour on the rota costs more
• Younger staff become much more expensive
• Any shortcomings in your scheduling will hit your profit straight away

2. Customers are squeezed by frozen tax thresholds

Income tax and National Insurance thresholds are frozen until 2030 to 2031. As wages rise, more of your staff and guests are pulled into higher tax bands without feeling much richer.

What this means for you

• Your team feel poorer, even after pay rises
• Guests have less truly disposable income
• Midweek visits and average spend are at risk

3. Business rates change in 2026, but not all good news

From April 2026:

• Business rate multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties will be set permanently lower, about 5p below the standard rate
• This is funded by a higher multiplier for properties with a rateable value of £500,000 or more

At the same time, new rateable values are coming through that are sharply higher for hospitality:

• Accommodation businesses up around 76%
• Pubs up around 30%
• Restaurants and cafés up around 14%

What this means for you

• You might get some relief from the new multipliers
• You might lose other discounts and be hit by higher property values
• Many sites will still see their bill rise, not fall

4. Other hits you will feel

• Alcohol duty rises with inflation from February 2026
• Tourist taxes can be introduced by mayors in England, adding a nightly charge to hotel stays which feeds into overall visitor spend in your area
• Sugar levy is extended to more pre‑packaged drinks, which can affect suppliers and menu pricing

None of these are fatal on their own. Together, they add to a simple truth.

your cost to trade is going up, your guests feel poorer, and your margin is caught in the middle.

The 2026 playbook for your restaurant P&L

You cannot control tax, wages or duty. You can control where your orders come from, how well each shift performs, and how much profit you keep from every pound of sales.

How to protect margin and grow revenue with Flipdish in 2026

The Budget has made one thing clear: running a restaurant just got more expensive. Wages are rising. Business rates are shifting. Customers feel the squeeze.

What has not changed is this: you still control how profitable your operation is. If you run your restaurant through your P&L, every line now needs sharper decisions and smarter systems. Here is how to approach 2026 using Flipdish, line by line.

Gross revenue: grow the top line without adding chaos

Gross revenue is every pound that comes through the till, online or in store. This is where Flipdish helps you grow demand, not just hope for it.

You increase gross revenue by:

• Driving more orders through your own branded website and app
• Increasing frequency through loyalty and smart re‑engagement
• Winning back lapsed customers with targeted campaigns

Marketing automation turns quiet days into planned demand. SMS, push notifications, email and segmented campaigns bring guests back when you need them most. More orders flowing in across peak and quieter periods creates healthy top line growth without overstretching your team. At Flipdish we provide you with the AI tools to help craft your promotional messages to ensure promotional messages are timely and relevant.

Net revenue: keep more of what you sell

Net revenue is what remains after commissions, fees and discounts. This is where marketplaces quietly destroy margin. High commission per order is a killer.

Flipdish protects net revenue by:

• Moving repeat customers from marketplaces to order direct
• Owning the customer relationship end to end
• Reducing third‑party dependency over time
• Reducing refunds with kitchen display screens for traceability and visibility
• Using fraud detection powered by Flipdish AI to reduce refunds, chargebacks or losses on sales

We partner with delivery services like Uber Direct so you can avoid marketplace commissions by offering direct delivery to your customers.

Every order that shifts from marketplace to direct instantly improves your P&L. Same food. Same effort. More money kept.

Cost of goods sold: control what enters and leaves the kitchen

Rising ingredient costs mean waste is no longer tolerable. Visibility is everything.

Flipdish inventory system helps you:

• Track stock in real time
• See usage patterns clearly
• Reduce over‑ordering and spoilage

You move from reactive ordering to disciplined stock control. That strengthens gross margin without touching quality or portion size.

Gross profit: turn your menu into a margin machine

Gross profit is what is left after food costs. This is where smart menu decisions pay off.

Flipdish ordering and digital menus allow you to:

• Highlight high‑margin items across all channels
• Use intelligent upsells and bundles to lift average order value
• Adjust pricing instantly when supplier costs shift

You are no longer guessing. You are steering guest behaviour towards your most profitable dishes. Small improvements here compound into serious money over a year.

Labour: more output from every paid hour

Wage pressure is here to stay. The response is productivity.

Flipdish helps you make every labour hour count through:

• Data‑driven staff rotas based on real demand
• Visibility of order flow by channel, time and day
• Early identification of slow periods to trim unnecessary hours
• Reduce reliance on staff to serve customers with Self-Service Kiosks

Add automation on top. Flipdish AI phone agent takes orders without tying up staff. Self‑serve kiosks reduce queue pressure and ordering errors. Table ordering cuts wasted steps and speeds up service. The result is more revenue per staff member per hour, not just higher wage costs.

Rent and rates: make your space earn its keep

You cannot lower tax but you can improve output per square metre.

Flipdish helps you increase revenue density by:

• Pushing volume into underused trading periods
• Improving order flow and kitchen throughput
• Increasing basket size without adding tables or seating
• Supporting additional brands on the same POS

Same space. Higher return. Stronger resilience against rising fixed costs.

Overheads: strip friction from the operation

Inefficiency quietly drains profit: double handling, wrong orders, manual processes.

Flipdish reduces overhead pressure through:

• Fully joined‑up in‑store and online payments
• Smoother order flow between channels
• Fewer mistakes and less rework

Less waste of time. Less waste of money. Better control.

EBITDA: where strength is built

EBITDA is the true health signal of your business.

When you improve:

• Gross revenue through demand generation
• Net revenue through direct orders
• Gross profit through menu and stock control
• Labour efficiency through automation
• Fixed cost performance through higher yield

EBITDA follows. This is where disciplined operators pull ahead in 2026.

Tax: pay less by earning better

You cannot change the tax rate. You change the amount by increasing profitability. A stronger EBITDA makes tax manageable instead of stressful. Flipdish gives you the levers to shape that outcome.

So what now?

The 2026 playbook for restaurants summary

You cannot control tax, wages or duty. You can control where your orders come from, how well each shift performs and how much profit you keep from every pound of revenue.

Here is how Flipdish helps you win:

• Drive direct, high‑margin demand
  Grow your own channels and reduce reliance on marketplaces.
• Run smarter shifts
  Use real time data to align labour with actual demand.
• Make the menu work harder
  Promote profitable items and lift every order with upsells.
• Automate the pressure points
  Use AI phone agents and kiosks to reduce labour strain and increase capacity.
• Act on live insight
  Track performance across all channels and adjust while it still matters.

The bottom line

The Budget makes trading tougher. Flipdish makes your operation sharper. More control. More margin. More growth. That is how smart restaurants move into 2026 with confidence. Ready to put this into action? Get in touch and let's have a chat.