BarTalk

How much are you putting up your prices after the Budget?

John Ellis

Crown Inn, Oakengates, Shropshire

I've brought a considerable amount of stock so I can delay the price rises for a month. I've got in two palettes of wine and about 70 beers with long shelf lives. Everybody at the pub is fully aware that it's not my choice or the brewery's choice to put prices up. They know who to blame. People that would normally have voted Labour are absolutely disgusted with the Chancellor.

Dave Parker

Shoulder of Mutton, Castleford, West Yorkshire

We will hold prices until the end of the month, but then it will be a 6p increase on beer. It's the minimum we can go to while still protecting our margins. We have absorbed two brewery increases, but being a free trader, it's a bit easier to do this than for a tied licensee. All our customers are very supportive especially as our beer will still be less than £2 a pint.

Allan Sherratt

Church House Inn, Bollington, Cheshire

It will just be the 4p Budget increase plus VAT for the moment, but then we will have to wait and see what Enterprise Inns has in store for us. The price rise has come at the worst possible time for us as trade has not been that good. We have put the pub on the market because tied-beer prices are hitting our margins and we cannot make enough money to make the business worthwhile.

David Heyes

Garsdale Inn, Brandlesholme, Bury

We've already put up our prices, which means 6p a pint more for beer and 10p on spirits. Its been a very bad Budget for the trade and I wonder how far prices will go before drinkers react en masse. With energy prices going up and increases on raw materials, we have never known things so bad. We hope to have sold the pub and be out of the trade by the end of the year.