SIBA boss backs PBD for all

The newly elected chairman of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has called for progressive beer duty (PBD) to be extended to include major brewers.

Keith Bott, who was appointed chairman for the second time at the group's conference last week, was responding to recent claims made by Suffolk brewer's Adnams finance chief Stephen Pugh.

Pugh claimed that PBD which provides a tax break for small brewers needs to be reviewed as "the incentive this creates is for the cask industry to become fragmented".

However Bott, who is managing director of Titanic Brewery, in Stoke-on-Trent, said he was keen to see PBD extended to help all brewers.

He told The Publican​: "We should be looking at positive outcomes rather than negative outcomes, to which end we have backed an income tax style system with the British Beer & Pub Association and CAMRA.

"My belief is that we need to look at how we can get tax breaks across the industry."

The income tax style system would see all brewers given tax breaks on the first 200,000 hectolitres they produce, however the move would need European Union approval.

In the latest edition of SIBA magazine Journal​ Pugh wrote: "I hope that we all have the best interests of cask ale brewing at heart and we should be asking whether the current structure of PBD is leading to an improved future for our industry.

"As a first step I think that HM Treasury should initiate a formal and public reappraisal of the structure of PBD."