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20 February 2008
The Campaign for Real Ale has called for a 1p cut in excise duty on beer to save the British pub.
More than 70 MPs and members of the House of Lords attended The Campaign for Real Ale's reception in the Terrace Pavilion last night, hosted by John Grogan, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.
CAMRA's vice-chair Colin Valentine told the Parliamentarians that the UK already had the highest rate of beer duty in the European Union. He said, "For every pint of 4% beer the Chancellor gets 31p. And in addition receives as much or even more in VAT. Each pub goer now sees more than a third of the price of every pint he or she buys go straight to the Government."
"The brewing industry contributes more than £5bn a year in excise duty and VAT. But revenues from beer have fallen short of Government targets and we believe that the reason is that taxes have been raised to close to the limit."
"More people today are buying their beer from supermarkets and off-licences and drinking at home. Today only 55% of all beer is drunk in the pub - 30 years ago the figure was closer to 90%."
He said that "beer bought in a supermarket generates far less VAT than beer bought in the pub - so by driving people to drink at home the Treasury is also driving down its revenues."
"A 1p cut in excise duty would start to help reduce the imbalance between drinking in the pub and the supermarket. It would make pubs more economically viable and encourage people to come back to the pub and drink beer in a more socially responsible environment", he said. "Increasing excise duty would mean even more people buying their beer in supermarkets, fewer people drinking in pubs and more communities losing their local pubs."
John Grogan said "there should be stricter controls on the sale of alcohol from supermarkets and off-licences." He also pointed out the EDM (974) put down by Greg Mulholland MP for Leeds North West which supports the Campaign for Real Ale's Community Pubs Week on 16th to 23rd February and states that community pubs play a hugely important function in the communities they serve. They provide an environment in which people can and do enjoy alcohol responsibly and therefore have a very important role in producing an appropriate culture for people to drink in.
Mr Grogan urged MPs to sign the EDM and to visit the local pubs in their constituency.
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