Trouble brewing

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Trouble brewing

Tony Benjamin has been hearing how proposed tax changes could make things bitter for the beer trade.

It’s enough to drive jovial mine host/hostess to drink – if only to boost the beer sales. Considering it’s our one truly national drink and, even now, 90% of beer consumed in the UK is also brewed in this country, it seems our tax regime would rather support wine and whiskey than keep the pints flowing at the pumps. According to CAMRA, duty on beer has risen by a total of 25% in the last two years, while annual pub beer sales are falling at a rate of 5%. As Jonathan Pollock, head of public relations at Wiltshire brewers Wadworth, points out: “It’s getting expensive to buy your round – it’s no longer a cheap ‘poor man’s’ drink. The French only pay 5p a pint in duty on beer but here it’s nearer 40p a pint. With these endless tax rises, pubs are finding life increasingly difficult.”

The harshest indicator of the situation has to be the fact that, throughout this summer, pubs across the country were closing at the rate of around five a day, with three of those being independently owned freehouses. In rural areas this has often been disastrous for community life as a village loses one of the last gathering places, and that problem is becoming so evident that no less a body than The Housing Federation has joined CAMRA in highlighting the issue. It’s visible in cities, too, and any trip across Bristol or Bath will pass pubs boarded up with no real prospect of reopening.

And now the new government has promised a rise in VAT and probably further increases in duty for beer. “I think next year’s going to be a very, very dangerous time. There’s going to be a lot of businesses hit very hard,” observes Paul Tanner, landlord of The Victoria in Clifton, Bristol.

Selected as last year’s Venue Pub Of The Year, it’s a splendid example of a no-frills place where good beer and friendly conversation (rather than gastromenus or karaoke nights) are what it’s all about. Paul realises that the imminent rise in VAT is not simply about adding something to the price of the end product. “It affects everything from the brewery onwards – detergents, glasses, everything will go up and it all has to come out of the price of a pint in the end.” He’s pinning his hopes on the quality of what he and partner Dee can offer. “With beer over £3 a pint, you’ve got to get it right, so you work hard to get a decent pint for the customer. You have to entice them, after all, because there’s always the supermarkets using beer as a loss leader. There’s a lot at stake here because communities will start to break up if they lose a decent pub and, when you think about it, brewing proper beer is one of the last things left to us that’s our own. We won’t be outsourcing it to China, after all!”

Ironically, the brewing business itself has been proliferating – Tanner knows of over 70 microbreweries nationally making many excellent artisan ales – but that’s not all good news for brewers, as Bath-based Abbey Ales MD Alan Morgan points out: “There’s almost no market – it’s so cut-throat and competitive. We’re OK, well established with a good reputation, but there’s no way I’d start again, now – I’d do something else!” He was speaking before the new tax-hike proposals had been announced, so clearly things are not going to get easier. It’s all rather worrying and, whether you’re a brewer, publican or drinker, it seems we may look back at the Noughties as some kind of golden age when a choice of great beers was affordably available at a local hostelry. Or maybe we can drink ourselves out of recession…

BEER IS AVAILABLE AT LICENSED PREMISES ALL OVER BRISTOL & BATH. DRINK NOW WHILE STOCKS LAST!