Labour blamed for death of 3,500 pubs

A Tory minister has called on Labour to apologise for introducing policies that led to more than 3,000 pubs closing for good.

Local government minister Grant Shapps made the call after figures were released showing there was a net closure of 3,530 pubs in England alone between 1997 and 2010.

He said: "Labour hiked taxes on pubs and did nothing to stop unfair loss-leading by supermarkets.

"The only people they helped were the yobs who benefited from 24-hour licensing laws which fuelled a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets.

"Labour must apologise for the harm they did to community pubs across the country."

His remarks follow an outburst by former Labour pubs minister John Healey, who last week slammed the coalition government for withdrawing a £4m package he introduced to help pubs just before the general election.

The coalition is also currently consulting on a wide range of measures that could hit the industry hard, including giving more powers to local authorities and introducing taxes on pubs that stay open late at night.

But Shapps said the new government is "doing its best to defend local pubs".

He pointed to the Localism Bill, which will allow communities to take on local assets, such as pubs, and the government's attempt to stop loss-leading on alcohol in the off-trade.

"There will be a ban on the sale of alcohol below cost price, helping protect local pubs from unfair loss leading by some supermarkets.

"The government is reforming licensing rules to make it easier to play live music in local pubs."

He defended the axing of Healey's measures by saying "pub landlords don't want state handouts. They want a level playing field and less government regulation getting in the way."