Beer industry slams Budget escalator ‘stairway to hell’
By: JimOldfield
March 21st, 2012
The price of a pint of beer is to rise again – by up to 10p – after a brewing industry bid to axe the beer duty escalator was ignored in the latest Budget.
Tory Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to make no changes to alcohol duty puts “one million jobs” at risk and is “hugely damaging for brewing and pubs”, brewing industry bosses lashed today.
They savaged the escalator as a stairway to hell… which raises the tax on beer by an extra two per cent above inflation every year.
According to CAMRA, this means the Government now take around £1 – roughly one third – of the price of every pint… in a move which is expected to add between five and 10 pence to the cost of each beer you buy.
Today, furious CAMRA emailed 136,000 members in protest, asking them to sign the e-petition against the escalator to “Save the Great British pint”.
Meanwhile, Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), said: “This is a huge lost opportunity to put British jobs and pubs first. Beer tax has now risen by 42 per cent since the misguided ‘escalator’ policy was introduced four years ago.
“It beggars belief that further hikes are planned next year. The Government must rethink this damaging policy before even more harm is done to the trade.”
The BBPA had joined with CAMRA, SIBA and other industry groups to lobby the Government to axe the escalator.
Before today’s announcement, the e-petition had collected over 12,000 signatures, while over 100 MPs signed an Early Day Motion also asking for the escalator’s removal.
The BBPA wants a full Parliamentary debate into the “wider impact” caused by the escalator which gives the UK the second highest beer duty rate in Europe.
Ms Simmonds added: “We need recognition that the beer and pub industry is a key contributor to the UK economy. The sector supports nearly one million jobs, with over 300,000 young people directly employed. Continued tax hikes will cost jobs and damage the economy.”
Ruth Evans, chief executive of the Brewing, Food & Beverage Industry Suppliers Association (BFBi), said: “Beyond the issue of jobs, the Government appears to have forgotten that the pub is often the heart of a community, where a large percentage of funds are raised for charities, sports facilities, and local services.
Thus, taxation will affect the “Big Society”, something David Cameron has stated as a “Mission”.
Wetherspoon chairman, Tim Martin, said: “We are disappointed that excise duties on alcohol will increase by two per cent beyond the rate of inflation, since the British people are now paying 40 per cent of all the alcohol duties in Europe.”
The Chancellor also announced a new 20 per cent “Machine Games Duty” – which the BBPA says will cost pubs an extra £14m next year.
Ms Simmonds said: “This is a bitter blow. For this new tax to be revenue neutral, it should not have been more than 15 per cent.
“Fruit machines and quiz machines are an important part of the fabric of British pubs, a vital income stream, and valued by customers. For quiz based machines, this punitive new tax rate could see many of them disappear from pubs.”
