Landlords fight back in the battle to save the British pub
Inns, calling for the firm to free up its pubs. They are also looking for a reduction in the amount of tax put on the price of a pint.
A third of a price of a British pint now goes in tax. Beer sales in pubs are already at their lowest levels in nearly 40 years and pub closures have accelerated to a rate of almost six a day.
In a statement put out after the Government started its investigation, the campaign said: “It is clear that the tie, which means that beer is 50-70p a pint more expensive to tied tenants, is a more significant cause of the difficulties faced by publicans than this year’s 3p per pint increase in beer duty. We look forward to working with the Government and parliamentarians to stop the damage which the tie is causing to our community pubs.”
The campaign attacked the British Beer and Pub Association, saying it had not done enough to protect individual pub owners. A spokesman said: “If the British Beer and Pub Association is serious about the future of community pubs why isn’t it putting pressure on its ‘pubco’ members to reduce beer prices and rents, rather than seeking to mislead the public that the rate of duty is the main problem facing the sector?”
The pub industry is under an unprecedented amount of pressure. It is finding it impossible to compete with supermarkets on price. Recent research has shown that the number of supermarkets and convenience stores has now reached 55,854, which is higher than the number of pubs in the UK for the first time in history.
Pubs have also blamed the smoking ban for driving away customers.
Things have been made harder by competition from the hugely successful Wetherspoons group. The firm, which has 44 establishments in the West Midlands and has sites earmarked for two more in Redditch and Perry Barr, announced a small profits rise in its recent yearly results – a spectacular result in the current economic climate.
