England and Scotland fans will be paying four times more duty on their pints than the European average and a dozen times more than fans in Germany as they watch the Euros this weekend.
According to the British Beer & Pub Association, Scottish football fans will pay 54.2p in duty, compared with the 4.6p that German fans pay when the first game of the competition — Scotland v Germany — kicks off tonight.
England fans, who will watch the national team play Serbia on Sunday, also will also paying 54.2p, rather more than the 12.7p that Serbian fans will pay.
The BBPA has written to the leaders of the three leading political parties calling for “fair recognition” of the industry’s value. It says it is “imperative that the next government provides a sustainable and proportionate fiscal and regulatory framework”.
The association says that since the turn of the century a quarter of Britain’s pubs have closed permanently, with taxes being one of the main factors. It says that to secure the industry’s future, a step-change is required in the way it is dealt with.
The government has frozen beer duty since 2020 and the present rate will remain in place until February next year. The trade body’s members have demanded a cut in duty as a first step towards bringing the sum they pay down to the European average.
They are also asking for the amount that pubs pay in business rates to be reduced. Pubs alone pay £500m a year in business rates, almost 3% of the total amount raised, but bring in only 0.5% of turnover across all UK businesses. According to the association, if business rates relief was removed, most pubs would close overnight.
The association also wants VAT on non-alcoholic drinks and on food sold in in pubs to be removed to bring it in line with the retail sector.
More than 80 brewing and pub company bosses have signed the letter, including Nick Mackenzie, the chief executive of Greene King and chairman of the BBPA; Simon Emeny, the chief executive of Fuller, Smith & Turner; Kevin Georgel, the boss of St Austell Brewery; David McDowall, chief executive of Stonegate Group, Britain’s biggest pubs company; and Lawson Mountstevens, the managing director of Star Pubs & Bars, which is owned by Heineken.
