The Campaign had written to the Chancellor laying out the serious threat to pubs and small breweries from the cost-of-living crisis and the need for targeted support. The Campaign also coordinated a letter from UK publicans backing a VAT cut on all pub sales – something that would make a real difference to pubs all over the UK.

Instead, Jeremy Hunt ignored pubs and publicans and merely announced an extension of the current freeze of alcohol duty, which doesn’t help pubs our publicans and doesn’t have any impact on the price for pub customers, due to other rising costs. A freeze to alcohol duty is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the global brewers and giant alcohol producers, but does nothing to help pubs, showing that yet again, the Government are listening only to the lobbyists of the big brewers and pubcos – and not to publicans, the people who actually run our pubs –  something that has been the case through the Conservatives 13 years in power.   

The cost-of-living crisis and continued inflation is putting huge pressure on pubs and publicans, with rising prices and bills, the increased cost of brewing and beer prices combined with consumers having less disposable income. This crisis follows the Covid-19 pandemic and three nationally imposed lockdowns and further months of restrictions, which saw pubs lose a huge proportion of revenue for 18 months and many pubs (and small breweries) still have significant debts they are paying off, which makes the current situation even more difficult. Costs for pubs and for brewers, especially energy and ingredient costs, continue to rise significantly alongside a cost-of-living crisis that reduces customer spending. This is made worse by the fact that pubs are having to pass on at least some of the rising costs faced by brewers and other suppliers, making visits to the pub even less affordable to those on lower and middle incomes.

Despite this, the Chancellor failed to announce ANY support for pubs, publicans and small brewers. No VAT cut, which the whole hospitality sector had been crying out for, no further action on business rates, no action on sky-high energy bills and no help with outstanding and unaffordable Covid debt.   

At the same time as pub closures have escalated, small breweries have been closing at a rate never seen before, yet the Chancellor announced nothing to support small breweries and indeed an overall duty freeze disproportionately benefits the biggest breweries, so allowing them to increase their stranglehold on the UK beer and pub market, reducing consumer choice.

Dawn Hopkins, Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Pubs and a publican in Norwich said:

“The Chancellor has now confirmed what UK publicans already suspected, that this Government doesn’t actually give a damn about pubs and is happy to see them close. There was absolutely nothing for pubs at all in this dreadful budget, which is disastrous considering the situation publicans are facing with the cost-of-living crisis.   

“Absurdly, the Chancellor stated that he was ‘backing the Great British pub’ yet his budget showed no such thing. We were fobbed off once again with the myth that a Beer Duty freeze will help pubs, when it makes no difference to publicans or pub customers, yet funnels millions to the big brewers and alcohol producers, that do not need any support.  It’s clear who’s side the Chancellor is really on. 

“Our pubs and small breweries are still struggling and still shutting at an alarming rate, and yet The Chancellor chose to ignore the people actually working in pubs and hospitality and shunned our call for a cut in the rate of VAT, which would truly help us out of this current crisis. It’s bitterly disappointing that this Government has so little respect for our industry and those working in it, and has shown that it certainly is not backing our pubs”.

Paul Crossman, Chair of the Campaign for Pubs and a publican in York said:

“Desperate pub operators will have been appalled today to see the Chancellor shamelessly claim to “support The Great British Pub” while delivering nothing at all in the way of meaningful support. It will be entirely apparent to the Chancellor that the entire pub and hospitality industry is now in deep crisis, with daily business failures occurring in all parts of the supply chain, all over the UK. Yet today he openly spurned united calls for substantive intervention, particularly in regard to VAT and business rates.

“The reality is that high street footfall and consumer spend has fallen through the floor due to the government’s own Cost of Living crisis, while supply costs continue to spiral due to multiple well-documented factors which also have arisen on their watch. The economic situation has left thousands of UK pubs and associated businesses staring down the barrel of permanent closure, and many will have been hoping against hope for some real eleventh hour help from this Budget. They will have been desperately disappointed to receive nothing but the meagre offering of a further beer duty freeze which in reality will not help their small business one iota.

“The Chancellor has been sadly true to this government’s longstanding form in simply paying empty lip service to the UK’s pubs. His inaction in this Budget reveals that he and his colleagues have no actual idea of what it takes for a pub business simply to survive, let alone for each one to go above and beyond in delivering a unique and vital community service each and every day, while in the process making an enormous contribution to our broader culture and economy.

“We can only hope that any future government will possess the vision required to salvage what is left of our once great sector’s true potential”.

Phil Saltonstall, Brewer Coordinator of the Campaign for Pubs and founder of Brass Castle Brewery said:

“The Chancellor has yet again peddled the lie that a duty freeze will ‘benefit 38,000 pubs’. It will hardly be noticed by pubs but it will give millions of pounds worth of tax cuts to the six multinational brewers and their city pubco stooges who control most of the UK’s pub estate.

“This comes a day after our own MP in Malton and business Minister Kevin Hollinrake handed out the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group ‘Community Pub Hero Awards’, including presenting the Scotland Pub Hero award to my brother’s pub in Leith, for the fantastic community work that he, his partner and their pub community does. Yet despite the smiles and warm words, which are all too easy, the Government has shown today it doesn’t actually care about pubs or the people who actually run them. 

“The Budget presented these pub heroes with absolutely no support to deal with the ongoing fallout of pandemic shutdowns, rising energy bills and a cost of living crisis.  It is so depressing that big multinational brewery lobbyists exert such control over this Government, at the expense of our own local pubs and small breweries”.

ENDS