Bailey, who is also chairman of the Independent Family Brewers of Britain, said Britain’s pubs were “under siege”, with Government tax increases “decimating” the country’s cultural heritage.
He also criticised new reports that the Government could look to ban under-18s from drinking non-alcoholic drinks in a pub environment.
“This is precisely why you can only assume from the Government’s recent actions and policy decisions that they wish to fuel a war on our local and rural pubs as well as alcohol,” he said, writing in The Telegraph.
“Daily, they demonstrate a puritanical desire to wipe out our locals, destroy employment and vandalise our communities.”
Utterly undervalued
Britain’s pubs are “utterly undervalued” for the role they play in society, and are hubs of social connection, charity and community cohesion, combating loneliness, fostering local identity and bringing people together across generations, Bailey wrote.
“Who in their right mind would purposefully destroy this?”
Tax increases are fuelling inflation and making a pint of beer or fish and chips unaffordable, “making us all poorer”, the Thwaites boss continued.
“These are businesses run by industrious, hard-working landlords trying to take sufficient money each week to pay the piper. Grafters and doers, the sort of people that underpin the success of this country.
“They don’t need the charitable support of our Chancellor, they need a fair crack of the whip without being ground into the dust by unbearable levels of tax.”
Tax reform
He said a landlord who makes 12p on a £5 pint has to pay the Government over £1.50 in tax, and will soon be making a loss under the Government’s tax proposals.
“Pubs have paid their way for decades, centuries even. To suggest otherwise is an insult.”
He added the promise of more transitional relief was a “slow road to oblivion…the delayed annihilation of pubs”.
“What pubs would like to see is the Government reform their tax as promised so that it is bearable.
“For our leaders to be brave enough to ask other sectors of the economy, particularly the digital economy, to step up and pay their way. It would solve the problem, be fair, be equitable and keep our pubs open.”
- This story originally appeared in The Morning Advertiser’s sister publication MCA here.
