CHARLES WELLS LTD BACKS CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE PUB
Bedford brewer and pub operator, Charles Wells Ltd, has pledged support for a new national campaign to save the British pub.
‘Axe the Beer Tax, Save the Pub’ was launched in Westminster with Kym Marsh, who plays barmaid Michelle Connor in Coronation Street.
The new national campaign, is calling a halt to government plans to raise beer taxes even further, and to take steps to safeguard Britain’s pubs.
Britain ’s beer and pub trade is under threat – beer sales in pubs are at their lowest since the Great Depression, closures are accelerating and jobs are being lost.
Paul Wells, chief executive of Charles Wells Ltd, the parent company of Wells and Young’s Brewing Company and Charles Wells Pub Company says this is no the time to raise beer taxes. Government should be safeguarding this great traditional industry, not damaging it beyond repair. New research predicts 43,000 job losses if the Chancellor goes ahead with his planned tax increases, and beer sales will fall by 13 million barrels over five years.
Following the pre-budget report, Wells says: “ The Chancellor has driven another nail into the coffin of the pub trade, on top of the ten per cent increase in duty earlier this year. By lowering VAT, here was his chance to provide some Christmas cheer in pubs up and down the land and his response was to stamp out that thought. And now we face the next nail and the hammer is already raised as the excise duty accelerator will arrive in three months time. This really is a disaster being played out in the bars of community pubs up and down the land. Pub operators are going to go bust this winter, and no one is going to re-open those pubs. But a new car, for example, is thousands of pounds cheaper. Where on earth is the sense in that?
“In the current economic climate, there can be no case for doing such harm to a very British industry, ninety per cent of whose product is made here in the UK.
“The Treasury will not raise the income it seeks from our customer. As tax goes up, beer sales go down. Tax increases will reduce not raise government revenue so the Chancellor’s sums do not add up.
“Taxing sensible, social drinkers as a way of discouraging those who drink too much will not work. Beer sales per capita have fallen by a third in the last two decades. Beer is already the most expensive drink, as measured by alcohol units. And the Chancellor is hitting the poorest harder than the more well off. Beer accounts for a greater proportion of lower income family budgets than higher earners’.
“The Treasury already takes one third of the price of every pint. Beer tax was increased by 9.1 per cent in the last budget and the Chancellor plans to increase it by two per cent above inflation for four years.
“We are calling on the Chancellor to abandon plans to raise beer taxes in future budgets.
“Our message, on behalf of drinkers, is enough is enough.”
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For further information, contact:
Joanna Dring, Wells and Young’s. 07814 717375 / joanna.dring@wellsandyoungs.co.uk
OR Kate Hempsall, Charles Wells Pub Company 07976 941958/ kate.hempsall@charleswells.co.uk
