The price of a pint has fallen for the first time in almost a year, but before you raise a glass – it’s only 1p cheaper.
New official data shows the average cost of a pint of lager was £4.79 last month, compared to £4.80 in August. Before last month, prices had steadily risen since January this year, when the UK’s most popular style of draught beer was £4.69 – a penny lower than December 2023. But beer campaigners point to official data that shows the cost of blowing the froth off a cold has jumped by 3.6% in the past 12 months.
In September last year, the typical price for the tipple was just £4.62, said the Office for National Statistics. While bitter has gone up by more than 2% over the same period – reaching £3.92 last month, compared to £3.84 a year ago.
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Campaign for Real Ale national chairman Ash Corbett-Collins said: “The latest ONS data reiterates the rising price of a pint is now commonplace, jeopardising the future of pub-going.
“Pubs are raising prices to simply survive, as the current environment threatens to break the hospitality trade completely.”
He added: “The pub industry is battling against excessively high energy bills, the rise in the cost of goods and an unfair business rates system.”
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Mr Corbett-Collins called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to back the struggling trade in her autumn Budget.
He told industry newspaper The Morning Advertiser: “Extending the draught duty discount to ensure pub consumers are not lost to stay-at-home drinking with supermarket alcohol, and the reform of the business rates system in England, as promised by the Labour Government’s manifesto, are needed to relieve the financial burden on pubs.
“With many pubs, social clubs and taprooms already shuttered, or on the brink of doing so, action must be taken during the Budget to prevent more communities from losing their locals.”