Parliamentary Beer Duty Debate

Thursday 1st November, 11:45 - 2:45 (approx).

Whatever your preferred tipple, if you want pubs to survive you need to support them next week. Here's why:

Due to alcohol duty policies:

• The tax man takes £1 of every pint bought in a pub.
• Britons pay 40% of the EU beer tax bill, but consume only 13%.
• Beer duty rates have increased by over 50% since 2004 but
• Beer duty revenues have increased by only 10% because
• Due to inflated prices consumption has fallen by 23%
• 7,800 pubs have closed, resulting in
• 78,000 jobs being lost.

An e-petition calling on a review of the beer duty escalator (whereby beer duty must rise by 2% above inflation every year) recently reached the required 100,000 signatories, thereby triggering the debate in the House of Commons next week. Not many petitions reach this milestone and the pub industry does not enjoy the support of the national media that it might, so quite an achievement. Despite that the government remain committed to keeping the beer duty escalator in place.

Now, you may drink wine, or whiskey, or orange juice in the pub but without its main source of revenue (beer) it will close.

So if you want pubs to survive, please sign the petition here and email our local MP here, telling her you rather like pubs, they support jobs, need reasonably priced beer to survive and would she do something about the beer duty next Thursday, please.

And do watch the debate, to see what MPs say.