Fuming campaigners demand Jeremy Hunt is banned from every pub in the country
Campaigners say Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s woeful budget should get him barred from bars nationwide.
The grassroots Campaign for Pubs called Wednesday's announcements “an absolutely dreadful Budget for UK pubs”. A spokesman added that Mr Hunt “should not be welcome in any pub in the country”.
The landlady of one formerly thriving village pub said the Budget had ended any hope of it staying open. Danni Bowyer, 30, who runs The King & Queen in Longcot, Oxfordshire, says it will close on March 23.
She blasted Mr Hunt’s decisions, saying a freeze on beer duty alone was not nearly enough to save her beloved pub and, with it, 18 jobs. Danni said: “You couldn’t make it up. It’s all spin. It’s bull***t.”
She pointed out that the headline duty on beer only affected one element of the price of a pint. And with no cut to the duty, or VAT – as many in the industry had hoped – and with wages and energy costs set to jump, the pub was no longer viable, she said.
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Had the Chancellor announced more help, she said they might have found a way to carry on. But Danni, who will also lose her home when the pub shuts, said: “Instead we have people crying because we are having to close.”
A spokesman added that Mr Hunt “should not be welcome in any pub in the country”.Tom McNeeney of The Oxford Pub in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, shared her disappointment. He said: “A big part of the industry assumed the Chancellor would listen. Now that he hasn’t, I think there will be a huge increase in those who will throw in the towel.”
Tom, 34, said many brewers had increased prices before the Budget. More rises are expected this year, he said, meaning pub prices were bound to keep going up. Nik Antona, Chairman of the Campaign for Real Ale, said: “The Budget was a missed opportunity to show backing for the Great British pub by significantly cutting tax on draught beer and cider.”
Emma McClarkin, British Beer and Pub Association Chief Executive, welcomed the duty freeze. But she added: “This April brewers and pubs still face a £450million cliff edge of spiralling wage costs and business rates.
“It is disappointing that the Chancellor did not choose to go further with a cut in duty, reduce VAT or cap the increase to the business rates multiplier, which would have helped mitigate the huge cost of doing business.
“Pressures on our sector remain acute, with margins being squeezed to the point where we fear it is likely that a further 500 to 600 pubs are likely to close this year on top of the 530 that closed in 2023.”
The BBPA said the UK had 45,306 pubs left at the end of 2023, down from 60,000-plus in 2022. Simon Dodd, Chief Executive of Young’s Pubs, said: “The Government has once again kicked the can down the road rather than implement much-needed long-term support for the sector.”
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