BBPA demands action on tax hikes as beer sales continue to drop
Publishing its latest Beer Barometer report, the BPPA revealed sales of beer fell in both the on and off-trade during Q4 last year.
Sales of beer in shops and supermarkets dropped by 7.5 per cent compared with a year earlier. The fall was less severe for pubs, bars and restaurants (down 4.8 per cent) but the figures represent yet another quarter of decline for beer sales in the UK.
"These figures show that the Government needs to stop its full-on tax assault on our vital beer and pub industry," said Brigid Simmonds, the BBPA chief executive.
Government revenues will have also been damaged as a result of the fall in sales. The drop translates into 138 million fewer pints being drunk in the last three months of the year compared with the same period in 2011.
Hugely damaging
The continuing fight against the beer duty escalator saw a number of breakthroughs in the past few months.
At the beginning of November, MPs debated the increasing tax on the drink with parliamentarians voting unanimously to call on the Government to review the policy - a call the Treasury has so far ignored.
Just before Christmas, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) held a mass rally in Westminster with 1,200 members helping to make the gathering the biggest campaigning event in the organisation's 40-year history.
Simmonds said today's figures show a 'pressing need' for a review of the tax escalator - she pointed to analysis conducted by Oxford Economics which shows a freeze in the tax in March's budget could save 5,000 jobs in the industry, many of which are currently held by young people.
"We’ve had tax hikes of 42 per cent since March 2008, which is hugely damaging and completely unacceptable for such an important manufacturing sector. Instead, we could be protecting and creating jobs at a time when the country most needs it," she added.
The last time the BBPA published the results of its Beer Barometer survey, beer sales in pubs had dropped by the same percentage as today - sales were down 4.8 per cent in Q3 2012 compared with Q3 2011.
