The Government has rejected pleas to introduce a minimum price on alcohol and a different duty rate on draught beer.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) rejected the calls in its response to the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group’s Community Pubs Report, published last year.
The government said adopting a different rate of duty on draught beer would be against European law.
Commenting on the decision, Robert Humphreys, the Beer Group secretary, said: "We are disappointed that the Government has not accepted the proposal for a lower rate of duty on draught beer.
"We will now take this issue to the European Commission in Brussels."
On minimum pricing, the DCMS said: “The Government has decided not to proceed with any national or local measures around minimum unit price.
“While there is good evidence that cheap alcohol is linked to people drinking more and subsequent harm to their health, it is important that any Government interventions reduce harm without impacting unduly on the majority of responsible drinkers.”
The DCMS has also rejected proposals to abolish gaming duty on the first AWP machine at a pub, force Sky to make subscriptions cheaper for community pubs and give rate relief to pubs that diversify.
However, licensing minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the Morning Advertiser he would meet with Sky to see if anything could be done for smaller pubs.
He said a number of recommendations had been or would be accepted including:
• A simplified process for minor variations to licences will be available later this year, subject to Parliamentary approval.
• Tied and leased pubs can apply to the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.
• From this summer, pubs should be able to benefit from higher stakes and prizes for gaming machines.
• Firm proposals for making the licensing system work better will be brought forward in the summer.
• Pubs will also benefit from the Chancellor’s recent announcement regarding the deferral of business rate payments for 2009/10.
