BBPA Beer Duty Escalator film

The British Beer & Pub Association have produced a film on the Beer Duty Escalator - well worth watching

Beer tax damages pub trade

From the British Beer & Pub Association

Pub beer sales suffer under big Beer Tax hikes – BBPA Beer Barometer

*Pub sales down 6.0% on same quarter last year, with off-trade sales up 4.7% *Swing shows lasting damage of Beer Tax hikes, says BBPA’s Brigid Simmonds *Public urged to get behind e-petition to stop tax rises

Britain’s pubs have seen a six per cent fall in beer sales in the first quarter of 2012, as they bore the brunt of continued, huge rises in the tax on beer, according to the latest quarterly ‘Beer Barometer’ from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), issued today. In contrast, off trade sales were up by nearly five per cent.

The BBPA believes that current pressures on the beer and pub sector, on which almost one million jobs depend, further highlight the poor decision of the Government to raise Beer Tax by a further five per cent in the March Budget – making for an astonishing 42 per cent tax hike since March 2008.

There is some comfort in the figures, in that beer sales are now falling at a slower rate than in the previous four years. Overall beer sales fell by 1.4 per cent in the quarter compared to last year. In the year to March 2012, overall beer sales were down 2.9 per cent, following the 7 per cent rise in beer duty last March.

The recent Budget tax hike was made under the controversial ‘duty escalator’ policy, despite widespread calls to rein in the rises. The BBPA and Oxford Economics believe this decision will cost some 5,000 jobs in 2012/13. A Government e-petition demanding an end to these punitive tax rises has already attracted over 28,000 signatures.

The decline in pub sales amounts to 57 million less pints enjoyed by Britain’s pub-goers, compared to last year’s first quarter.

Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, comments:

“These figures show the Chancellor was totally wrong to raise beer tax again in his Budget, as this discredited policy continues to hit pubs hard. This key British industry could be an engine of growth for the economy – but poor tax policy is damaging our potential. The public are getting behind calls for a change in policy, and signing the e-petition in their thousands. I hope people will continue to respond positively and back a tax freeze – and I hope the Government will listen.”


Stop the beer duty escalator – sign the e-petition here

Do Your Duty - sign the petition against the beer escalator

Tomorrow (Wed) is budget day, the one day of the year that all drinkers can guaranteed to get screwed by the Government. The horrendous beer tax calculator is still on the books, which adds 2% plus inflation to the price of beer. This makes a 45% tax rise on beer since 2008!

There is a petition to sign about this but only has 12,000 signatures at the moment, odd that a certain organisations do not seem to be supporting this?

Pete Brown has more on the duty escalator over at his place.

Below are some infographics from the British Beer & Pub Association

• 950,000 British jobs depend on the UK beer and pub sector – 34,000 fewer than last year 

• There are now 900 breweries in the UK – a vital part of Britain’s manufacturing mix

• £13 billion is paid in wages in the sector

• Brewing and pubs are worth £19.4 billion to the UK economy (Gross Value Added)

• The beer and pub sector contributes over £11 billion in tax revenues

• 52,000 public houses in the UK
•  2% of GDP is contributed by pubs
• Almost 600,000 people are employed in full and part-time jobs

• Over 80% of pubs (i.e. around 40,000 outlets) are small businesses which are independently managed or run by self-employed licensees. 
• Beer represents 68% of all alcoholic drinks sold in pubs 
• pub food market is currently estimated to be worth in the region of £6 billion per annum

Pub beer sales down

 According to the British Beer & Pub Association's Beer Barometer, pub beer sales are down 4.3% on last year.

Press Release from BBPA 
Pubs remain hardest hit by beer tax rises – BBPA third quarter ‘Beer Barometer’

• No case for further tax rises, says British Beer & Pub Association Chief Executive Brigid Simmonds

Despite a positive quarter in total beer volumes, Britain’s pubs are still suffering from lost beer sales from sharp recent rises in Beer Tax and VAT. In contrast, supermarkets and off-licences reported growth on the same quarter as last year, the latest BBPA Quarterly Beer Barometer, released today, indicates.

Pub beer sales have remained disappointing, falling by 4.3 per cent from July to September– equivalent to 45 million fewer pints sold over the quarter compared with last year, or 488,000 fewer per day. While the rate of decline is slowing, it has not bottomed out. The BBPA is pointing out the key role of beer tax hikes in the disappointing figures. While real disposable incomes have fallen, huge beer tax rises are making one of life’s simple pleasures, a beer in the pub with friends, more and more unaffordable.

Overall, sales of beer were up 1.6 per cent on the same quarter of 2010. However the BBPA sounded a note of caution, as third quarter 2010 off-trade sales were particularly weak, partly as a result of surplus stocks being run down following the Football World Cup. This contributed to the comparative success of the supermarkets, with a 9.1 per cent increase in sales in the third quarter.

Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, comments:

“It is good to see some growth in the beer market overall, and we are seeing some new pubs opening, with successful operators innovating, and broadening their offer to consumers.

“However, there is no doubt that pubs continue to bear the brunt of Britain’s punitive tax policies on beer. We’ve seen Beer Tax rise by 35 per cent since March 2008, with Britons now paying an astonishing 40 per cent of all the beer taxes collected in the entire European Union. This is still shutting pubs and costing jobs, in a sector that could create growth in the economy.

“We know that given the right tax and regulatory environment we can grow the sector, hiring more staff, adding to the nation’s wealth and maintaining our proud pub heritage. We certainly don’t need the further beer tax rises the Government is planning under a misguided tax escalator policy. Instead, we want to welcome everyone to support their local pub and play their part in their local community.”

There is a reason apart from tax why pubs continue to lose sales but both the BBPA and CAMRA fail to see the elephant in the room:

Time for a change in the law to save the pub?

British Beer and Pub Association launch photographic competition

The British Beer & Pub Association presents the UK’s biggest pub photography competition and exhibition – Pub Life. Taking place over the next three months British drinkers have a once in a lifetime opportunity to capture their beloved local and help celebrate a great British institution, which has been facing tough times.

Regulars, amateurs and professionals are invited to enter photographs of their local pub across six distinct categories in the hope of winning an Olympus camera and for their image to be exhibited at an exclusive exhibition from the 16th -23rd May 2011 at The Old Truman Brewery in East London.

The Public House has been a national treasure since the sixth century, providing a hub for the community and a lively social watering hole for all walks of life. Fifteen centuries later and the much loved institution has borne the brunt of the economic downturn despite being one of Britain’s most recognised traditions.
Now, in a nationwide celebration of everything great about the pub, Pub Life invites members of the public, whether they are a professional photographer or not, to capture their favourite scenes from their local pub under six categories for the chance to win a camera from Olympus and a prestigious spot in the exclusive Pub Life Photography Exhibition.
All six winners will receive an Olympus E-PL2 Single Kit Lens Camera; six runners up will also win an Olympus XZ-1 camera. One lucky overall winner will win the Olympus E-PL2 Double Kit Lens Camera as well as a host of photography accessories to help them get the best shot possible.

Pub Life is homage to the local pub through a unique national photography competition that aims to capture the true spirit of life inside a British pub. Entries will be shortlisted to 10 images across the six categories with the winning images being chosen by a panel of judges. The competition will culminate in a series of unique events running alongside the Pub Life exhibition at London’s Old Truman Brewery gallery space.

Entrants can submit as many images as they like across all six of the competition categories. The categories range from The Sun’s Beautiful Game through to Strange But True category with the most prestigious Pub Life category aiming to uncover the image that best captures life inside the modern British pub.

Pub Life is supported by British In order to submit your photographs visit facebook or email them to entries@publifecompeitition.com

Categories
From the 21st March, budding photographers both professional, amateur and pub locals will be invited to submit images to be judged through the six different categories. From this British Beer & Pub Association and The Sun will nominate a shortlist of photographers who will then be invited to exhibit in a top London gallery for Pub Life.

The exhibition will be from 16th – 23rd May 2011 in a gallery within The Old Truman Brewery.

The six categories are:
• Pub Life: The image that truly represents the essence of life in the modern pub
• The Sun’s The Beautiful Game: An image that depicts sportsmanship within the local pub
• Strange But True: An image that portrays the bizarre nature of the local pub
• The Regulars: This could be a Landlord, or regular figure or feature of your local pub
• Pub With A View: An incredible landscape outside or through a fireside window
• Lazy Sunday: The quintessential English social activity; spent with great friends and a roast dinner

More Information
BBPA Press release (pdf)
Pub Life Facebook Site

Pubs add a billion pounds to the Welsh Economy every year

 A new report commissioned by the British Beer & Pub Association has revealed that 51,000 people are dependent on jobs in the beer and pub industries in Wales with £600 million in wages being dependent on the trade which adds £1 billion to the Welsh economy every year.

The full report, written by Oxford Economics is available here (pdf)

The UK figures are equally impressive:

• 980,000 people in the UK depend on beer and pubs for work
• The beer and pub trade adds over £21 billion to the UK economy every year
• £13.4 billion in UK wages are dependent on the trade, each year

With pubs so important to the economy in Wales, is it not time the Welsh Assembly Government started to support them? Instead the WAG seem intent on supporting the neo-prohibitionists such as Fake Charity Alcohol Concern Wales who rely on Government funding of £250,000/pa to produce negative and incorrect reports such as this one?

A new day, a new tax on our pubs

From Brew Wales

Just when we think that Colostomy Brown and his Darling Chancellor cannot tax the pub industry any further, news comes through of this via the British Beer and Pub Association:

Government plans to change the taxation of popular quiz and games machines like Cluedo, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Monopoly, will cost the industry £85 million, put many manufacturers out of business and turn more people towards gambling on fruit machines, the pub sector warned today.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are seeking to reclassify Skills with Prizes (SWP) machines as gambling machines, making them liable for gaming machine tax. HMRC also wants to make the tax retrospective for the last three years, which could cost the industry £85 million.

Retrospective! Our pubs are still closing at a rate of about 40 a week and the Government is doing bugger all to stop this - a retrospective tax will do nothing for an industry already in decline.

SWP machines have become increasingly popular in pubs in recent years. They are often based on well known game shows, such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Question of Sport, The Weakest Link, or board games such as Cluedo, Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. They rely on the knowledge and ability of players to answer quiz questions and have become an important part of the entertainment offered to many customers, in a nation where the pub quiz is a national institution. There are currently estimated to be around 35,000 SWP machines being used in the UK.

The industry argues that SWP machines, which have been on the market for many years, have always been recognised as distinct and different from gambling machines such as fruit machines. In fact, it was a distinction explicitly recognised in the tax system. HMRC used to levy a separate SWP tax until its removal in August 2006. Gambling machines, where chance is the deciding factor on whether a player wins a cash payout, have always been covered by a tax called Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD). Given SWP machines have existed for many years without being classified as gambling machines, the industry is questioning the legal and rational basis for such a change now.

The industry has highlighted five principle threats arising from HMRC’s attempt to reclassify quiz machines as gambling machines in order to make them liable for tax:

• It will cost the industry £85 million, or £2,500 per pub

• It will result in fewer people playing SWP machines for entertainment and more people playing fruit machines to gamble

• SWP machines are manufactured in Britain and the scale of the tax bill will put many out of business

• It will place hard-pressed pubs – closing at the rate of 39 a week – under further pressure

• Jobs will be lost in manufacturing and pubs

The industry estimates the tax revenues that will be lost to the Treasury due to falling business revenues, failing businesses and rising job losses will far outweigh any revenue gain from the tax change.

Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association said, “The perverse result of this tax change will be to switch more people onto gambling as quiz machines are switched off across Britain. That cannot be a sensible or sustainable public policy outcome for Government.

“It must make more sense for Government to encourage those people who enjoy playing machines to have a bit of fun with their friends with games that are about skill and entertainment, rather than turn to gambling. At the moment there is an incentive for pubs and people to play these machines. This proposed tax change will remove that at a stroke.

“This sudden tax change will place a swingeing tax burden on the industry. The inevitable result of such a considerable cost increase will be business failure, job losses and contraction in this growing market.”

Another day another tax, this Government has ruined this country, roll on General Election Day and a chance to vote these idiots out of office.