Landlords calling time on pub closures
BIRMINGHAM campaigners have given a rousing wake-up call to the Government – to call time on pub closures across the UK.
Licensees and drinks industry figures gathered at pubs throughout the country in a day of protest to highlight the wave of closures which has swept the sector in the last 12 months.
Concerned landlords gathered to ring their pub bells in unison at 1pm in a wake-up call to Westminster politicians to prevent more bars from going to the wall.
In Birmingham, Ian Wade, licensee of the Plough in Harborne, joined Richard Matthews, regional secretary of the British Beer and Pub Association, to highlight the dangers facing many of the region’s much loved pubs.
Richard said: “We estimate that 36 pubs a week are currently closing in the UK, or five a day.
“If the current numbers carry on closing the way they are, we would be left without any pubs at all in 30 years’ time.
“Unfortunately, the rate of closures has really accelerated in the last 12 months or so. The smoking ban has contributed to that and the Government also keeps on bumping up beer duty in the Budget.
“The increases in beer duty widen the gap between the pub trade and the supermarket trade. A lot of drinkers are deserting pubs and watching the big screen at home.
“No-one wants to see a closed pub but if you go through parts of the Black Country, you see every other pub boarded up.”
The British Beer and Pub Association says in a new report that Government taxes and red tape are adding to the pressure on the brewing and pub sector as it grapples with one of its most severe periods of economic pressure on record.
The report – A Wake up for Westminster – highlights the fact that pub beer sales have sunk to their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s and that pub closures have now reached unprecedented levels.
The report said: “Government policies on tax and regulation have severely restricted business flexibility and are hampering the sector’s ability to respond to economic change.”
BBPA Chief Executive Rob Hayward said: “pubs play a vital role in community cohesion and social life in Britain. They are frequently one of the few remaining places where communities come together to socialise.
“Now is not the time for the Government to be introducing policies that will force up prices for all.”
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