Pubs' disappearing act
George Orwell, defender of brown ale and the English pub, would be aghast. During the first six months of 2018, 476 pubs closed in the UK. That is 18 pubs per week according to CAMRA, which keeps a list. In total around 1,000 pubs shuttered last year.
The hardest hit areas include Greater London and the East Midlands. London, in particular, has seen one in three pubs go since 2001. Fortunately, there were 4,108 pubs left in Greater London, as per CAMRA’s count at the end of June 2018.
CAMRA blames the closures on a succession of governments, burdening pubs with a “triple whammy of high Beer Duty, rapidly rising Business Rates and VAT”. As a result, a third of the cost of a pint is now made up of various taxes.
The beer campaigning group called on Mrs May’s government to abandon any upcoming increases to the tax paid by pubs in the Chancellor's Budget this November, where a GBP 0.02 (USD 0.03) per pint increase in beer duty is expected, with pubs also fearing they will lose GBP 1,000 (USD 1,270) in business rate relief.
Pubs contribute GBP 23.1 billion (USD 29 billion) a year to the UK economy and employ around 800,000 people, with a further 100,000 working for the brewing industry, according to research by Oxford Economics (2017), which had been commissioned by the British Beer & Pub Association.
Also, punters are increasingly shunning pubs because they think the on-premise price of beer too high, CAMRA’s national chairperson, Jackie Parker, said. More people chose to drink at home and, as a consequence, pubs are closing down.
The gap between on-premise and off-premise prices of beer is widening. The average price of a pint of beer in London is now GBP 5.20 (USD 6.60), while across the country the average price is about GBP 3.50 (USD 4.50). Craft beer in supermarkets costs about GBP 1.50 per bottle or can (330 ml), whereas mainstream lagers and bitters average at less than GBP 1.00.
