2,000 pubs face closure without budget aid, industry warns
The BBPA is calling on the chancellor to freeze duty rates and implement a significant increase in the discount for draft beer sold in pubs
Some 2,000 pubs across the UK are facing closure, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned, as it urges the government to use the Spring Budget to offer a lifeline to the industry.
The association has asked the government to deliver a plan for sustainable growth with “fair, modernised tax rates and a focus on skills and training needed to ensure pubs and breweries can thrive”.
It is calling on the chancellor to freeze duty rates, implement a significant increase in the discount for draft beer sold in pubs, and introduce the previously announced reduced rate for lower-strength beers from 1 August.
The BBPA’s call comes as data from Oxford Economics estimates on-trade beer sales will fall by 9% in 2023/4, equating to one million fewer barrels of beer sold and 25,000 potential job losses in pubs and the wider industry.
With the Energy Bill Relief Scheme set to be “significantly” reduced from 1 April, the BBPA is also highlighting the ongoing impact of soaring energy costs on the industry. It has asked the government to hold suppliers accountable and “fix a broken system that is penalising hospitality businesses”.
The BBPA highlighted the fact that publican Joanne Farrell, who has run the Windsor Castle near Stockport for over 15 years, has resorted to installing a wood burner to save on bills, hoovering in the dark and lighting candles to avoid using too much electricity.
Elsewhere, Emma Shepherd who runs The Blue Ball Inn in Worrall, Yorkshire, said her fixed rate electricity contract is due to end in just under a month’s time and she is struggling to find a new provider, with one quoting a standing charge rate that would mark a 1000%+ increase on what she currently pays.
CEO of the BBPA, Emma McClarkin, said: “It is crucial the government shows in this budget that it understands the pressures the sector is facing and just how much our pubs and breweries mean to communities everywhere across the UK. We urgently need the chancellor to deliver a plan for sustainable growth with fair, modernised tax rates and a focus on skills and training needed to ensure pubs and breweries can thrive.
“After almost three years of extremely tough trading conditions due to lockdowns, an energy crisis, supply chain disruptions and more, now is a make-or-break moment to save our locals and breweries from failure now in the years to come, we need the government to act now or risk losing something very special forever.”
