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Pubs worry as authorities’s 50p pint tax hike may imply paying over £8 for a beer

Brits are staring down the barrel of the price of their pints increasing by around 50p – meaning some could soon be paying over £8.

The pub and hospitality sector is calling on the government to spare it further hikes in alcohol duty which have been proposed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the upcoming Autumn Budget. Now, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned that this could see the price of pints going up by around 50p, depending on the strength of the beer.

The eye-watering sums come with people in the capital already falling foul of pints around the £7.50 mark. In turn, the proposed duty hikes raise fears that it could see some beers finally succumb to the dreaded £8 threshold, especially in the likes of Central London.

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The BBPA calculated that under the proposals, if the duty was passed on to consumers the price of a 4.5% pint would increase by 49p.



The great British pub was fun while it lasted (Stock)
The great British pub was fun while it lasted (Stock)

Meanwhile, if the hike was absorbed by landlords reluctant to put their prices up further, their profits could sink from around 10p a pint to around 7p, the BBPA noted.

Emma McClarkin, CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “Rachel Reeves’ plan to hike beer duty will be a bitter blow for our nation’s brewers, pubs and beer drinkers.

“After the Chancellor’s pre-election promise of a Five Point Plan for Pubs, it is impossible to see how this will be fulfilled if the price of a pint is increased by the Government.



'That'll be £142.50, please' (stock)
‘That’ll be £142.50, please’ (stock)

“The cost of doing business has soared in recent years and, with potentially new punishing burdens, this tax increase is the last thing pubs and beer drinkers need. It makes it all the more vital that the Chancellor maintains the 75% business rates relief.

“Anything less will be a total betrayal of the great British pub that this government promised to protect, and the one million jobs that depend on them.”

The government’s proposed duty hikes for next month’s budget come amid an effort to plug a reported £22billion hole in public finances.