Tomorrow’s Budget could be the most important in years. People and businesses around the country are desperate to know how the Chancellor is going to help them after a long period of high taxes and sluggish growth. If I were Jeremy Hunt, I’d already be dreaming of sitting down with an ice-cold pint on Wednesday night.
But he might struggle to find one. Half of the 10 constituencies with the lowest number of pubs in this country are in London. More establishments here are closing all the time, at a faster rate than anywhere else in the UK, with almost 50 closing in the first half of 2023 alone.
Between massive business rates and VAT, our pubs and breweries carry an unthinkable tax burden.
Even if he goes straight to a Westminster favourite like The Red Lion, he’ll take a sobering hit to his own budget.
The average cost of a pint in London is £6.45 — almost double the price you’d find in major European capitals like Berlin and Madrid. As the CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association, I spend my days talking to the people who make the industry tick. They’re all concerned about one thing: the cost of doing business. Between massive business rates and VAT on pubs and previous, historic rises in beer duty, our pubs and breweries carry an unthinkable tax burden.
Yet more closures are inevitable if this doesn’t change soon. That’s why we’re asking the Chancellor permanently to lower the VAT rate for pubs and the punitive business rates. Many pubs in London are facing further increases of 6.7 per cent to their rates this April — and very few of them can afford it.
We’re also backing a five per cent cut to the headline rate of duty on beer. According to Oxford Economics, a cut to beer duty could also create 13,000 jobs. These urgent measures aren’t just about saving an industry. They’re about saving a way of life, and establishments that have been serving Londoners for centuries. If he can deliver them, the Chancellor’s first round is on us.
