Neame: 25% of pubs could close

Shepherd Neame boss Jonathan Neame has warned that 25% of all Britain's pubs could close for good unless duty on beer is cut.

Speaking at a pre-budget beer and pub committee, Neame joined senior industry figures, the trade and MPs to discuss the effect of further tax rises on the pub sector and to call for a freeze on duty.

Neame said the duty increases had landed the sector with a £520m bill, which it had to absorb and was already causing pain.

He said: "If anyone thinks pub closures will plateau at six a day, they are wrong. Some estimate that 25% of the UK's pub stock may close, unless something is done.

"The current rate of six pub closures a day equates to 700 job losses every fortnight, but that doesn't seem to make the headlines.

"Why is that with other industries the government reaches for its chequebook, but for pubs they reach for the revolver."

Neame added that if the current situation continued, he believed that £3.3bn of economic activity could be lost by 2012.

David Dryden, vice president of UK and Ireland for Anheuser-Busch, said that the current state of the industry had left brewers facing difficult decisions, with 37 brewers having closed since 1997.

Dryden said: "At present, a third of the price of a pint of beer goes to the treasury and this is set to increase to 40% in 2010 and 2011. Major brewers are only making 1p profit per pint."

Keith Bott, president of the Society of Independent Brewers, called for a move away from punitive taxes to a fairer system for low strength alcohol such as beer.

He said that he was supporting a call for a lower and differential duty on draught beer as a way of saving the British pub.