PRESS RELEASE
Campaign for Pubs
Treasury slammed for Budget porkie pie: Campaign for Pubs writes to the Head of the Civil Service about breach of the Civil Service Code
The Campaign for Pubs has written to the Head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, making a complaint about a false statement made by Treasury civil servants about Wednesday’s disastrous budget for pubs.
The Campaign, that represents pubs, publicans and pub campaigners, has slammed a falsehood tweeted by the official Treasury X/Twitter account @hmtreasury, that claimed a freeze in alcohol duty was “Cutting costs for breweries, distilleries, restaurants, nightclubs, pubs & bars”. Yet this is clearly untrue. A freeze of beer duty (which is a producer tax, levied on breweries) simply holds this current tax, on beer, at the same level. It is therefore impossible that this has ‘cut costs’ for anyone, least of all pubs!
The Civil Service Code says civil servants “must set out the facts and relevant issues truthfully, and correct any errors as soon as possible”. The tweet on Wednesday was untruthful and a clear breach of the Civil Service Code. As a result, the Campaign has made a formal complaint demanding a retraction and an apology.
As well as not cutting costs for anyone, as a producer tax, alcohol duty it is paid by breweries and drinks manufacturers, not by pubs or publicans. Duty freezes or cuts don’t help pubs or publicans as the impact is negligible on the price publicans pay (and are often not passed on) but benefit the global brewers and drinks brands, who will collectively save tens millions of tax by alcohol duty not increasing. The duty freeze also doesn’t have any impact on the price for pub customers, due to other rising costs, which are pushing prices up, something the Chancellor did nothing about.
Notably once again, the only parties to really welcome the Budget and duty freeze were global brewers Heineken and Carlsberg-Marston’s, as well as their trade association, the BBPA. Once again, this Conservative Government has shown that it only listens to the lobbyists of the global brewers and offshore pubcos, the so-called ‘British Beer and Pub Association’ (whose CEO is a former Conservative MEP) whilst ignoring those who actually run pubs and the organisations who represent them, including the Campaign for Pubs.
Publicans had been urging the Government to give direct support to pubs via a VAT cut on all pub sales, further business rate relief, cancellation of Covid debt and action on sky-high energy bills. The Chancellor failed to do any of these things to help struggling publicans, whilst instead funnelling millions to his mates and giant corporates that don’t need any taxpayer support.
The Campaign for Pubs press release is here.
Dawn Hopkins, Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Pubs and a publican in Norwich said:
“Publicans were disgusted, if not surprised, at the way Jeremy Hunt claimed to be “supporting 38,000 pubs” with his pathetic duty freeze, which is complete nonsense, however people were stunned to see a clear lie from the Treasury twitter account.
“The Budget was enough of a slap in the face for pubs and publicans, with no extra support for pubs at all, but for the Treasury then to be telling porkie pies is a disgrace. We hope that the Head of the Civil Service, Simon Case, will demand a retraction and an apology and ensure such dishonesty from the Treasury does not happen again”.
Paul Crossman, Chair of the Campaign for Pubs and a publican in York said:
“Publicans are furious about the complete failure of the Government to support pubs in the Budget, whilst as usual funnelling taxpayers’ money to the global brewers and offshore pubcos.
“We will not, however, put up with the Government lying about who they are helping. The Civil Service Code states that civil servants “must set out the facts and relevant issues truthfully, and correct any errors as soon as possible”. This Treasury tweet was demonstrably untruthful and a clear breach of the Civil Service Code and action must be taken to correct this”.
ENDS