A FREEZE on the amount of duty to be paid on beer and cider was announced in this week’s budget.
Following three successive years of one pence cuts in beer and cider duty, Chancellor George Osborne announced the price of the tax would freeze for the coming year.
The duty paid on a pint of 5 per cent beer will remain at 52.17p
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) called the move a “missed opportunity” to support the revival of UK brewers.
However, they said the announcement of a fall in business rates, also announced in the budget, would benefit community pubs.
Steve Davis, chair of CAMRA’s North Manchester branch, said: “I think that some of the other changes in the budget, the business rate relief changes especially, may be of significant benefit to local pubs.”
He expressed his disappointment at the fact that CAMRA’s campaign for a further drop in duty was unsuccessful.
Greg McAvoy, of Seven Bro7hers brewery in Salford, welcomed the fact that rates had not been increased as it helped newly established businesses.
He said: “(The duty) is already quite high, but if it’s not going up that’s a good thing.”
Chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, Brigid Simmons, said over the past four years the reductions and freeze in duty had meant the price of a pint was 20 pence lower than it could have been had trends at the time continued.
She said however that rising costs for pubs, such as the living wage meant “the Government has more to do, to support pubs”.
Despite the freeze, the BBPA said that duty on beer and cider is still 13 times higher than in Germany and more than three times what it is in the EU on average.
By Matt Henderson
@MattHenderson92
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