Bristol sees 24 pubs close as beer tax keeps rising
TWENTY four pubs in the Bristol area closed in the last year, campaigners said yesterday – as ministers defended a higher tax on beer.
Yesterday MPs pointed the finger at the controversial beer duty escalator, saying it was leading to falling sales and killing Britain's pubs.
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There were also warnings about the rocketing price of a pint compared to cut-price supermarket deals, and calls for a clampdown on pubs being converted into supermarkets.
Charlotte Leslie, Conservative MP for Bristol North West, put her name on the motion demanding a review of the controversial inflation-busting duty following a public petition.
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She told MPs about her local, the Bear and Rugged Staff in Southmead, and said the planning for Bristol's free school took place in a pub.
Ms Leslie said the government had done "quite well" in helping the industry, but added: "Pubs are still closing at a rate of 18 a week."
Plummeting beer sales mean the duty is not bringing money into the Treasury, she said.
Ms Leslie also pointed to the fight to reopen the historic Lamplighters pub in Shirehampton, which is the subject of a petition and campaign from locals.
Turning to the cost of beer, she added: "The damage caused by cut-price booze in supermarkets is clear for all to see. I would urge the minister and government, with all speed, to end this disastrous beer duty escalator."
The escalator, brought in by the previous Labour government, hikes beer duty by two per cent above inflation every year until 2015. Yesterday's debate was welcomed by Peter Bridle, of the Campaign for Real Ale, which organised the petition.
Mr Bridle, who is chairman of the Bristol & District CAMRA group, said 24 pubs had closed in the area in the last year alone – with many more before that.
He said: "A lot of pubs are being boarded up, or converted into supermarkets and flats.
"I very much welcome the fact that this is being debated. We are getting sympathetic noises from some of them. There are one or two that could be a little more robust, but I won't name names."
Pointing out that Britain pays 40 per cent of beer tax in the EU but drinks only 13 per cent of the beer, he called for the escalator to be "scrapped with immediate effect".
But Treasury Minister Sajid Javed, who grew up in Bristol, told MPs: "Cancelling the two per cent rise for beer – the duty escalator – would cost £35m next year and £70m the following year.
"If those taxes were cancelled, it would mean that revenue would have to be recouped one way or another – either from further public spending cuts, or increases in other taxes."
Highlighting "lifestyle changes" and people switching to other drinks, the minister said: "It's those factors that are determining the size of the pub sector – not just duties."
Comments
by katachua
Monday, November 05 2012, 4:47PM
“@Macadam2000
"drink too much and you won't get severed"
Good advice, that, particularly in certain estate pubs...”
by Morrissey9
Monday, November 05 2012, 4:19PM
“I have yet to see a pub close that was actually a decent place to drink. The ones that closed were the ones full of drunks in the day, locals who all knew each other at night, did rubbish beer, no food and were just generally inhospitable. There are loads of pubs springing up which are actually decent friendly places and are doing just fine. The old fashioned drinker's boozer is no more, which is a good thing really.”
by bris28
Monday, November 05 2012, 4:08PM
“Nobody has dared say this so I will. Many pubs close because the people so-say running them are not business people. They go into the venture with little, if any, capital. They have no skill in looking after the cellar or indeed knowledge of marketing. They think that once the doors open customers will throng in. Sorry, but that's not the case. These pubs fail because the people behind the bars have no vision or business ac***en. I've seen pubs were the so-called mine-host runs out to the local off licence to buy a bottle of wine. You can't run a business that way but then the traditional suppliers won't give credit for obvious reasons. I challenge any failed 'landlord' to say I'm wrong.”
by RobBradStoke
Monday, November 05 2012, 1:13PM
“There are plenty of busy pubs out there so may be some people have to face the fact that poorly run pubs close!”
by pixel_boy
Monday, November 05 2012, 12:08AM
“All the pubs that Hitler could not close ... David Cameron and George Osborne are shutting down - go figure ;-)”
by Angus_G
Sunday, November 04 2012, 11:51PM
“I seem to recall Charlotte Leslie claiming The Mouse was her local in the run up to the election. Did she just nip up to The Bear for a bit of exercise, if ever? And if the "planning" for the Free School was done in a pub, that may explain why it's been such a shambles. Is it even half full yet, with much more generous funding than real schools in the area get?”
by Macadam2000
Sunday, November 04 2012, 6:58PM
“Just short-termism again this is why we are having so many u-turns. We have to invest in the community or we will have a lot more issues than we do today and they will cost the government more in the long run. Pubs are place to meet people and drink responsibly - drink too much and you won't get severed, you don't get that when sat at home. We will end up with no pubs, 4 big shops that sell everything and no real reason to leave the house. We will have all kinds of social problems, no communities and ghost-tows everywhere - not a future I want to live in.”
by katachua
Sunday, November 04 2012, 6:53PM
“@harry12911
"This Government wants to kill off pubs and other places where people meet. They want us to drive to Supermarkets, buy 98% of what we need there, drive home and then stay home watching xfactor and sky football.
This tax on beer in pubs contradicts everything the govt tells us it is trying to do to save small businesses."
Well said, sir! After all, if we don't meet other people socially, we will get all our information about the world from the idiot box in the corner. Nothing could suit politicians better.”
by CharlesBridge
Sunday, November 04 2012, 5:35PM
“I love this bit about it being her local, I can just see it now Charlotte on the lash glugging Natch until she can't stand and then getting a bag of chips over the road on the way home ;-) get real, she's never beein in the Bear.....
Charlotte Leslie, Conservative MP for Bristol North West,
She told MPs about her local, the Bear and Rugged Staff in Southmead, and said the planning for Bristol's free school took place in a pub.”
by suffolkpunch
Sunday, November 04 2012, 2:12PM
“Tenants of pubcos were still doing well until the smoking ban, but when takings decreased pubcos took it out on their tenants.”