ALMR calls for moratorium on new pub laws
A moratorium on costly new laws, action to stop below-cost supermarket alcohol sales and duty breaks are needed to stop the "haemorrhage of pubs".
That was the message to five Government ministers at today's pub crisis meeting from Kate Nicholls, head of communications at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR).
She highlighted how much "crippling" redtape and "over-regulation" had hit pubs recently.
There have been 299 pub-specific laws adopted since 1997, 46% of them relating to employment. One in five licensees fear becoming uncompetitive due to redtape, they spend eight hours a week dealing with it and three out of four hosts employed extra resources just to cope with it.
The average cost of running a pub is now 52% of turnover, she added.
Nicholls said: "This lethal cocktail of ever increasing levels of duty and red tape" has led to the "haemorrhage of pubs in recent years".
But "it is about to get much, much worse" with the proposed mandatory alcohol retailing code. This will see mandatory conditions on pubs, including curbs on drinks deals, operating Challenge 21 and offering smaller drinks measures.
"As drafted, the national mandatory conditions would apply to all pub retailers — the tiny irresponsible minority and the overwhelmingly responsible, law abiding majority — and more than half of the proposals carry an additional operating cost.
"ALMR research suggests that complying with the mandatory conditions alone would impose a cost of between £415 and £725 per outlet per annum."
She proposed:
• A moratorium on new business costs such as the code.
• Tackling beer price differentials between the on and off trade, "in particular below cost selling".
• An alcohol duty cut when VAT returns to its usual level later this year — duty went up to compensate for VAT falling from 17.5% to 15% last year.
Nicholls said: "Unless we tackle all these issues then the rate of pub closures and decline in pub openings can only accelerate.
"Closed pubs pay no taxes. If we continue to lose outlets at current rates then we all lose — the Government, the businesses, the employees and the public."
Click back later for more news from the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group meeting .
