Neame: "Time for the industry to fight its corner on taxation"
In an interview with the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, he said: “Our greatest enemy is apathy. When I say I want people to speak in a common voice it doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree with what I say.
“We want strong opinions. We want people Facebooking, tweeting and we want debate — that is good for the industry. But all I am saying is there is one key point that we should all be united on — that we have too much tax on the sector. If we had less, we could invest it in our pubs and job creation.”
Neame took on the top job as chairman of the BBPA earlier this month after chief executive Mark Hunter resigned from the role. He will remain in the role until October 2014.
Neame believes it is essential for the industry to fight its case on taxation.
“The overwhelming big elephant in the room is that tax levels are far too high for the sector — whether you are at the producer end or retailer end — anything between 40% to 50% of your turnover is going to Government, depending on where you are in the supply chain.
“We should focus on the duty escalator first, then build pressure for the VAT cut,” he said.
“It will be difficult to get the duty escalator scrapped before 2015 but the important period for the industry will be in the next 18 months because decisions get made in advance and manifestos get written in advance.”
The full Big Interview with Jonathan Neame will be published later this month
