The party’s over: Pub bosses warn pint prices will rise despite Budget promises
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A major pub boss has swiftly ended the party for cheaper pints, warning prices could creep up by 25p to 30p in spite of the 3p price cut promised by ‘fizzy Rishi’ in Wednesday’s Budget.
Speaking to BBC’s Today Programme, Shepherd Neame chief executive Jonathan Neame, whose brewery runs 300 pubs across the South East, warned the cut in alcohol duties will not be felt due to spiralling inflation.
“We will pass on the duty cut at a wholesale, but in all honesty, pubs are facing between 25p to 30p per pint inflation and all this will do is take the top of that,” he said.
While Rishi Sunak’s announced overhauling of alcohol duties was largely welcomed by the pub sector yesterday – reflected in Wetherspoons’ and Marstons’s rising share prices – some industry chiefs remain sceptical.
Hikes in costs of energy, food, and wages coupled with supply chain squeezes have put hospitality under mounting pressure. “Too much is being borne by retail and hospitality,” said the pub chief.
Though the sector has welcomed the 50 per cent cut in business rates, Neame regretted the “missed opportunity for fundamental reform in rates.”
The Chancellor’s enthusiasm for new duties simplifying an outdated system seems not to have caught – “this is a medieval tax,” said Neame. Running a brewery that claims to have been in operation since the late 1500s, he may not be far off knowing.