Campaigning against the duty escalator is set to be one of the "biggest challenges" facing the beer industry, head of public affairs at the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) David Wilson has admitted.
In his first interview since taking on the role at the trade association, he has revealed that the industry needs to ensure a "sustained level of activity" towards MPs and Government. "The challenge is that in the crowded place of public affairs we need to communicate. We need to put the argument of duty into the 'tax tolerance' debate," he said.
"We need to — particularly on duty — sustain our focus and make sure the Chancellor is made aware the escalator is not a soft option. This is the biggest challenge."
The industry has a lot of support in the House of Commons, but there is still work to do with a "new generation" of MPs who were voted in at the last election, he argued. The BBPA needs to work to communicate the benefits and provenance of beer, especially to MPs who do not have breweries in their constituencies.
"There is a lot of latent goodwill for the pub and beer sector across parties. We need to transform that into policies," he argued. "MPs crawl over themselves to be on the side of the pub because they recognise its importance in life. We need to take that forward."
In particular, he is keen to promote the positives about pubs and is to provide evidence on their importance to the future of the high street review being run by retail marketing consultant Mary Portas.
He said: "We need to communicate not just the negatives about pub closures, but the positives about pubs."
Wilson replaced director of communications Mark Hastings, who left the BBPA last year.