JUBILEE!
For the extended weekend of Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 June, pubs will be permitted to stay open for an additional two hours on each of the three nights. This will apply not just to serving alcohol but also to the provision of regulated entertainment and of late-night refreshment, although only where the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises is taking
place.
THE CASK PROJECT
At the beginning of April, the Morning Advertiser, the pub trade’s leading newspaper, launched a campaign called the Cask Project. Its aim is to stop the perceived long term decline of cask beer and ‘reinstall it to its pride of place on the bars of pubs throughout the country’. For this purpose, the MA has joined forces with a number of brewers, including Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company, Greene King, Sharp’s Brewery (Molson Coors) and St Austell. This is welcome. The introductory article contained many positive comments about cask beer but also correctly recognised its problems, including poor quality (particularly beer left on too long) and the product’s lack of appeal to younger customers.
CAMRA was not invited to participate which, given that we are primarily a consumer organisation, is fair enough. Indeed, CAMRA members may well not agree with at least one of the suggestions in particular. This was that the price of cask beer should be benchmarked against keg craft beers for which customers were said to be ‘happily paying up to
£7 a pint and more in some cases’. This notion of ‘premiumisation’ is not new but I suspect that there has never been a worse time to advocate it.
SPRING STATEMENT
In advance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s spring statement, CAMRA wrote to him setting out its concerns over the ‘several pressing threats to the sector, the communities that value and support it, and the people working within it’. As delivered however, the spring statement contained almost nothing relating to pubs and brewing. CAMRA’s chief executive, Tom Stainer, commented, “With the Office of Budget Responsibility stating that household disposable incomes are set to fall at the biggest ever rate since records began, it looks like we are in for a huge dent in consumer spending which will hit our pubs, social clubs and the breweries that serve them. Coupled with huge rises in costs for businesses in the beer and pubs industry, we urgently needed action to support and save our locals which are a vital part of community life up and down the country. Unfortunately, the Chancellor’s announcement contained little new support for pubs and brewers. This will result in costs going up for consumers, who don’t have the disposable income with current prices, let alone in a few months’ time. CAMRA will continue to campaign for urgent help for pubs, breweries and cider producers in the months and years to come. This should include more help with the burden of business rates, replacing the unfair business rates system entirely, reversing the impending increase in the VAT rate for some goods and services and bringing forward the introduction of the draught duty rate for beer and cider served in pubs.”
BUSINESS RATES
The All Party Parliamentary Beer Group also made recommendations to the Chancellor in advance of the spring statement. These specifically concern business rates and came out of the Group’s recent inquiry into the subject.
They were as follows:
- introduction of an online sales tax so that the digital sector bears its fair share of the tax burden, with the funds raised being used to reduce the costs borne by ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses;
- a new and specific rates multiplier for pubs, closer to the 1990s level of 32p per £1 of rateable value, to reflect the contribution that pubs make to their communities;
- greater transparency and more resources for the Valuation Office Agency to support the current system of valuation for pubs;
- increased small business relief to include more community pubs, especially in the light of rising utility
The Chancellor did however announce a temporary relief of 50% for hospitality businesses with rateable values up to £110,000 as from 1 April. He also announced that the multiplier would be frozen for 2022/2023. Welcome as this might be, to small businesses especially, it is still ‘kicking the can down the road’ in terms of proper reform.
CIDER DUTY
There is concern that what is known as the ‘farmgate exemption’ for duty payable on cider is to be removed. Under this provision, small cider makers who produce less than 70 hectolitres per annum do not pay duty. Most of these producers are part time or part of a diversified farm business. Some 80% of cider producers fall into this category, although their combined output is just a fraction of the total national output. Gillian Hough, CAMRA’s real ale, cider and perry campaigns director commented, “This exemption ensures and supports a varied and competitive market for us as consumers. It recognises that real cider and perry, made seasonally and using local fruit, plays a key part in so many rural economies as well as preserving our culture and heritage. Cider and perry orchards can be hundreds of years old and the biodiversity they support has enormous ecological value. Any change to the farmgate exemption would have a devastating impact on cider and perry makers, orchards and rural landscapes and as a consequence the market as a whole.”
CAMRA continues to challenge the inclusion of the 40 litre container threshold as part of the reduced rates proposed under the Government’s Alcohol Duty Review and has submitted evidence accordingly.
ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE
Although the planning rules have changed over the last few years, registering a pub as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) still makes a significant contribution to preserving a pub under threat. CAMRA’s policy here is to support community groups in doing so, rather than seek the registration ourselves. There have always been problems in getting some local authorities to accept that a pub qualifies as an ACV. CAMRA’s view is that it does because a community pub, going about its day-to-day business effectively, furthers the social interests and social well-being of local people. Some local authorities however expect what are called ‘ancillary activities’ such as meetings of local groups or sports clubs, fund-raising ventures, special community events and the like. CAMRA’s Planning Advisory Group exists to help branches with such difficulties. You can contact CAMRA’s National Planning Policy Adviser, Paul Ainsworth, on paul.ainsworth@camra.org.uk. Likewise, Paul would like to hear of any ‘interesting’ reasons for the refusal of an ACV that local authorities come up with. It is worth noting that as long ago as 2018 the Government began a review of the guidance for ACV listing and CAMRA submitted detailed proposals for improvements. Nothing has been heard since. CAMRA continues to lobby MPs on the matter.
PUBS CODE ADJUDICATOR UPDATE
In an article in the Morning Advertiser (8 April), the Adjudicator, Fiona Dickie, set out some recent changes to the Pubs Code. There have been changes to the operation of the Market Rent Only process, principally that a pub tenant now has three months to conclude a deal with their pub owning business (POB) rather than 14 days, a situation which previously often pushed them into an unwanted and expensive arbitration process. The Pubs Code is reviewed every three years and the review for the period ending 31 March 2022 is now due. Given the number of new pub management schemes being introduced by the POBs that fall outside its provisions, you have to wonder how relevant the Pubs Code continues to be. In addition there is an increasing number of cases where POBs are using Section 20 of the Landlord & Tenant Act to refuse tenants new leases so that the POB can convert their pubs into managed houses. It could be that the days of the traditional pub tenancy are numbered.
FUND RAISING FOR THE UKRAINE
In early April, distributors Euroboozer of Hertfordshire managed to rescue the equivalent of some 30,000 pints of beer from the independent Varvar Brewery in Kyiv. The beer has been distributed for sale with the proceeds going to the Red Cross humanitarian relief appeal. Among the pubs that obtained a supply was the Stag and Lantern micropub in Highams Park (E4 9LQ). The photo shows Mel from the pub with ten of Varvar’s different beer styles. With thanks to Owen Woodliffe for the news and the photo.
The Drinkers for Ukraine organisation’s website contains the recipe for Resist, the Ukrainian Anti-Imperial Stout which is being produced by a number of breweries for the same good cause. See the section on Sambrook’s in the Brewery News column. Homebrewers are encouraged to have a go as well but don’t forget to peel your beetroot!
THE MOONGAZER CHARITY BEERPUSH
After many trials and tribulations, David Holliday finally entered London on 8 April, the ninth day of his 147 mile ‘beerpush’ from the Moongazer Brewery in Norfolk to St Barts Hospital in aid of the charity Testicular Cancer Awareness.
The photo shows him on the towpath of the River Lea at Chingford with his 75 kilogram load. David raised a creditable £14,000 and his Just Giving website will remain open until October. Go to justgiving.com/fundraising/beerpush.
Trains, Buses and Beers
The Epping Ongar Railway is pleased to confirm its plans for summer 2022. These include a whole weekend of ale trains from 15 to 17 July. There will be bars open at both North Weald and Ongar stations, plus the return of both the Flag & Whistle and the Shunters Arms bars on the trains. With drinks being poured from midday, beer and cider drinkers will be able to enjoy the ambience of heritage trains coasting through the Essex countryside. For this year, the Real Ale Weekend will be advance ticket only; get your tickets via the EOR website as below. Once they’re gone, they’re gone! In addition, the railway will be operating its regular evening ale trains on 4 June, 25 June and 17 September. Vintage buses will connect with the special services and run into the evening to help people on their way home. For full details of the only ale trains you can get to using an Oystercard, please see www.eorailway.co.uk.