The licensed sector has attacked the Chancellor’s decision to increase taxes on alcohol, at a time when the on-trade is suffering from record closures.
The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) condemned the across-the-board duty increases saying that they would hit pubs and consumers hard both this year and for the next four years.
Nick Bish, ALMR’s chief executive, said: “The Budget proves that the Chancellor doesn’t give a XXXX for Britain’s local pubs.
“Britain’s pubs needed a tonic from the Chancellor. But he’s produced a toxic Budget for the industry instead.
“The government had again failed to distinguish between the vast majority of responsible operators and consumers, on the one hand, and the irresponsible minority on the other - hitting them both, equally hard, instead.
“In particular, the Budget failed to address the crucial issue of below-cost selling by major supermarkets which, unlike pubs, can afford to absorb some of the duty increases announced this afternoon.”
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) also spoke out against “inflation-busting” beer duty increases that it described as a “charter for smugglers and cheap supermarket booze”.
The organisation said that the rise, which was a 13% increase, would lead to the price of a pint soaring by 20p, fuelling pub closures and increasing unregulated drinking at home or on the streets.
Mike Benner, chief executive of Camra, said: “The Chancellor has failed to recognise that well-run community pubs are the solution to Britain’s binge drinking problems.
“This budget will do nothing to stop binge drinking, but it will lead to pub closures on a huge scale, widen the gap between supermarket and pub prices and encourage smuggling and cross-border shopping.
“It’s a great big nail whacked ruthlessly into the coffin of the British pub.”
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) highlighted that the tax hikes would mean that beer could reach £6.50 by the time of the London Olympics.
Rob Hayward, chief executive of the BBPA, said: “Alistair Darling has just launched the £6.50 pint in time for the London Olympics. This will escalate pub closures, which are already at record levels. And further depress beer sales which have sunk by one million pints a day over the last 12 months alone.
“That the government should commit itself and future Governments to an above inflation rate increase for alcohol for the next four years is hitting all drinkers for the sins of a minority even before it has received the results of its own report on pricing, promotions and harm. “
Alistair Darling announced that beer duty would rise by 4p a pint, cider by 3p a litre, wine by 14p a bottle and spirits by 55p a bottle from midnight on Sunday.
Derek Andrew, head of Marston’s managed pub arm, said:“It is intellectually insulting and duplicitous. You talk to government, they listen and nod and talk about a targeted approach and then they come out with this carpet-bombing approach. They must live in some parallel universe.
“How is this going to stop 10-year-olds on council estates drinking? It is just going to encourage people to seek out cheap products in supermarkets and discourage people from using pubs. It is callous beyond reproach.”
