Darling Under Pressure To Abandon UK Beer Tax Increase

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

20 April 2009

UK Chancellor Alistair Darling will be defying the majority of MPs if he goes ahead with tax rises on beer in next week’s budget, according to a poll published on April 15.

59% of MPs want the Treasury to axe its plans to increase Beer Tax - and, with pubs closing at a record rate of nearly six a day, 61% of MPs want government action to support the pub as part of local communities.

The poll of MPs was released a week ahead of the budget by the ‘Axe the Beer Tax - Save the Pub’ campaign, which is spearheaded by the British Beer and Pub Association and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

More than 202 MPs, including 97 Labour backbenchers, have already signed a Parliamentary Motion (EDM 10) supporting the campaign after 25,000 members of the public emailed their MP. In a ComRes poll published last month, 70% of the public said they did not believe that an increase in Beer Tax above inflation was justified in current circumstances.

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of brewer Shepherd Neame, told a Westminster press conference:

"This poll shows the Chancellor will be over-riding the majority of the Commons if he increases beer tax – as well as the majority of voters and consumers."

"The economic facts have changed dramatically for the worse since he announced last spring his intention to increase beer tax above inflation year by year. The case for beer tax increases – which we always contested – has been swept away by the recession. The beer and pubs trade has suffered one of its worst years ever," he continued, adding:

"Our message to the Chancellor is – don’t kick this great traditional industry when it is down. When the facts change, change your mind. And rarely have the economic facts changed so fast."

Mike Benner, chief executive of CAMRA said:

"It is clear that the majority of MPs are in the same place as the majority of consumers – they don’t want further damage done to pubs by further tax increases."

"We are not asking for special favours, only for a reprieve from an unnecessary and unjustifiable tax rise. The Chancellor needs to recognize the scale of the threat to the traditional pub as more and more close with every month of recession."

The poll by ComRes shows that MPs agree by a margin of 6-1 that the government should take action to support the British pub as a vital part of social life in communities.

Dr Richard Muir, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and author of a recent study of community pubs, ‘The Social Value of Community Pubs’, concluded:

"MPs realize that pubs are more than businesses, they have an important role to play in communities. The government should not under-estimate the value of what is lost to community life when the local pub closes."

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