I’m pleased to say that there is some positive news in our Pub News column but, in April, the various increases announced in the last budget, primarily employer’s National Insurance contributions and business rates, will come into effect. The effects will not be immediate. We must cross our fingers and see what happens in due course.
In the introduction to our December/ January edition I mentioned SIBA’s Indie Beer campaign. This is now being followed up by Indie Beer Week, which will be held from 11 to 20 April. You can find details of events at IndieBeer.uk. It is the independents, both pubs and breweries, who are most at risk.
In this context please do read Christine Cryne’s article on Beerblefish. The large pubcos will cope; Sir Tim Martin has said that the increases will cost his business an extra £1.2 million a week but the chain’s survival is not in doubt. It is the independent operators who most need our support and it is often independent pubs who stock beers from independent breweries. Please do support them if you can. Nothing helps like money across the bar.
Pub losses continue. The Mirror newspaper has launched a campaign called Your Pub Needs You, which CAMRA is supporting. Another supporter is the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who told the Mirror that he still visits his local, the Pineapple in Kentish Town, when he can. The campaign’s aims include making it easier for communities to save at-risk local pubs. The Mirror says that ‘Awareness of the issues that pubs are facing, the very real and devastating impact of pub closures on communities and what the Government must do to help, must be brought to the wider public’. I cannot argue with that.
Tony Hedger