Price of a pint of ale up 5.5 per cent in last year

By James Wilmore

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Real ale Excise Public house Indirect tax

Duty hikes over the past year have forced the price of a pint of real ale up by 5.5 per cent, new research has revealed. The study by the Campaign...

Duty hikes over the past year have forced the price of a pint of real ale up by 5.5 per cent, new research has revealed.

The study by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) comes amid a final call from the group for the Chancellor to stop the beer tax "insanity".

And at CAMRA's annual conference more than 1,000 of its members overwhelmingly endorsed a call to freeze excise duties and scrap the beer tax escalator in Wednesday's Budget.

Mike Benner, CAMRA's chief executive, said: 'Both the publican and the pub-goer are suffering at the hands of disproportionate increases in beer taxation.

"Beer prices across the board are increasing way above the rate of inflation and the government must act now to give well-run community pubs a break."

The research also found that Britain's drinkers have paid more than three billion pounds in beer excise duty since the last Budget; freetraders have been hit the hardest, increasing real ale prices by 6.2 per cent in the last year and the East Midlands has seen prices rise the most with real ale increasing by 9.1 per cent since February last year.

"In addition to the 18 per cent increase in beer tax last year, the government appears committed to punishing responsible pub-goers with a two per cent above inflation rise in beer tax year after year," Benner added.

"A decision to abandon this unfair, inflation-busting tax escalator and freeze beer tax are key remedies for preventing what has previously been described as a 'bloodbath' of pub closures across the land."

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