Should pubs be given tax breaks ?

[Ken L]

Pubs have been a central pilar of British cuture for centuries but now they'really struggling against a tide of cheap booze and tightening budgets and many are going out of business.

 

OK, so some of them really deserve to go under but if things carry on as they are, even the best of them will start to fail.

 

Personally, I think that you're much more likely to see social problems as a result of groups of lads in a park drinking cans than from the same bunch of lads drinking in a traditional pub. With pubs playing such a central role in comunity life, conecting old and young, I think there is a case for ensuring that this part of British culture doesn't die and if it takes a lower rate of alcohol tax paid on draught beer to keep them going then I think it should be considered.

 

What think you all ?

[barry luxton]

Much the same for our post offices as well. Don't you think the brewers have had it too good for years, they must have payed a large part in the pubs themselves with the ever increasing cost of the pint, ask them for a discount. Don't know if i have sympathy for them.

 

Don't get me wrong the government had played thier part. Yes i know we can say the tax is part of it. Along with the draconian smoking ban. Don't forget the local councils business rates, bet they ain't cheap. Have the pubs now had their use? Dunno.

Edited March 4, 2009 by barry luxton

[five bellies]

Good pubs wont fail,

 

poeple dont think the way they did when I started drinking in pubs nearly thirty years ago, well not in the south east any way! the days of the old girls in the snug bar and the old boys having a bet and watching the horses on the TV are gone the Pub Lunch would get a trades man thrown off site now so its down the cafe for him,Ladies work as hard as men nowadays so Dad is just as likley got to get home for the kids as much as the wife, so the swift half on the way home has died a death as well. A lot of poeple like to get home before dark owing to poor law and order on the urban streets so have a tin in doors in front of the telly in saftey plus its cheaper.

 

sociaty has changed plus the amount of pubs we had out striped demand.

 

If you have a good pub with a unique selling piont it will still take money.

[Elton]

It's a part of British culture that we could live without, surely? The abundance of "following the police on Friday night" TV documentaries shows what many pubs are like now.

 

It's also a sign of British 'culture' that we assume that not drinking in pubs means that the drinking will take place elsewhere. What's wrong with trying to encourage less drinking?

 

Err, can you tell I haven't had a pint for about four months or more now?

[Clifftop]

found this in the surf. http://www.beerandpub.com/newsList_detail.aspx?newsId=271

 

Record 2000 pub closures since 2008 Budget at a cost of 20,000 jobs

04.03.2009

 

• 75,000 further jobs under threat in the industry

• Five Ministers to face cross examination by MPs at UK Pubs Crisis Ministerial Summit

• Poll finds 70% of people want Chancellor to drop plan for beer tax increases in next month's budget

 

A record 2,000 pubs have now closed since the Chancellor increased beer tax in the 2008 Budget, resulting in 20,000 job losses over the last year.

 

In addition, research by Oxford Economics examining the impact of last year's 18 per cent leap in excise duty and the implications of the four year drinks tax escalator, forecasts that a further 75,000 jobs are at risk in the drinks industry. The two beer tax increases in 2008 alone placed an additional £520 million cost burden on the sector.

 

The release of these new figures comes on the same day five Government Ministers are due to face a cross examination by MPs at the UK Pubs Crisis Ministerial Summit.

 

Rob Hayward, Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said:

 

"These new figures reveal the true scale of the struggle facing the beer and pub industry.

 

"There was understandable political concern about the recent 850 job losses at Mini. The pub sector is losing nearly twice as many jobs every month. Furthermore, when a pub closes a family loses not only its livelihood, but its home.

 

"The beer and pub industry is not looking for a handout, just hands off any further tax or regulation increases. We are urging the Government to abandon the 2 per cent over inflation drinks' tax escalator due to start in March and pledge no further increases in excise duty in this year's Budget.

 

Cheers Fred

Edited March 5, 2009 by Clifftop

[Steve Walker]

I'd have thought pubs would be packed to the rafters with all those people who said they were prevented from going to the pub by the smoke...

[Arf]

I know a few real friendly old gits that basically live in pubs, I met them from being in those pubs over the years my wife worked in those pubs.

 

It would be sad to see these permanent pub installations go as they would do if the pubs closed, but it would also either do them the world of good, or kill them. Not sure which.

 

I went cold turkey on the cigarettes 12 days ago, and I've avoided beer since then. I hardly ever go to pubs these anyway, partly because with the amount of overtime I do I really can't waste the usable time I have at home, also because it costs much more than spending a night in, and then also because in recent years I've become more responsible and wish to stay out of trouble, a goal that some characters I've met in pubs over the years didn't seem to have much sympathy for.

[jeepster]

Surely Ken, the lads in the parks you talking about wouldn't be allowed in the pub anyway, being underage. The reason they drink in the park is that they have no where else to do it, by the time people become 18 they would drink at home, or at a mates house if not in the pub?

[Arf]

On the subject of unsociable drinking:

 

I remember my first day in the UK - I was in Acton Town and walked up to the local Tesco.

There was a group of about 6 vagrants sitting around on the pavement outside.

One of them asked me for a pound, which I gave him seeing as I was in high spirits.

He went into Tesco and bought a tin of beer - I saw him walk out with as I was leaving my till.

 

As I walked back past the bunch of vagrants, he had opened it, had a sip and passed it round. They were all taking sips and passing it around!

 

This was a first for me, back in Cape Town vagrants would kill each other for a drop of meths.

 

I mused to myself that even the bums were civilized in first world countries, and went on my way.

[jeepster]

Interesting terminology there Arf, many people would say that SA is a first world country, look at Johannesburg, or for that matter Cape Town, both have the thriving economic centres that epitomise first world countries Of course I know you don't have to go far to see some wholescale third world style poverty too....