WHEN I became the landlady of the only pub left in the village where I grew up, two locals where I drank as a girl had already closed.
Since I took over as co-owner of the Half Moon in Kirdford, West Sussex, in 2017 I can name ten pubs in the surrounding villages that are now houses.
AlamyJodie Kidd fears pubs like hers will die out unless Jeremy Hunt steps in and gives them a tax break in next week’s budget[/caption]
GettyJodie writes: ‘Unless the Chancellor (pictured) freezes beer duty and keeps business rates down, another 10,000 are predicted to go under’[/caption]
And unless Chancellor Jeremy Hunt helps out the hospitality industry in next week’s Autumn Statement, many more will close.
These beautiful and much-loved community buildings will be turned into homes by builders hungry to snap them up.
We are already losing five pubs a day and unless the Chancellor freezes beer duty and keeps business rates down, another 10,000 are predicted to go under.
A pub isn’t just somewhere that people go to have a pint. It is so much more than that.
Being a rural publican has opened my eyes to the importance of the role of a pub in a small community.
This is the time people need to be social, to come and sit and have a chat and complain about how hard life is at the moment.
It is the main hub where people can sit and have a moan or just forget about their worries.
It is heart-breaking to see so many of these incredibly important buildings for villages having to close their doors — and that’s why The Sun’s new Save Our Sups campaign is so sorely needed.
People have a good go at running them but few seem to last because the new owners just cannot make them work.
There is one pub down the road from me that must have changed hands four or five times in recent years.
It is incredibly beautiful, sits on the edge of a cricket pitch and ticks every box.
Four or five people have tried to make it work but the Government is strangling our industry and making it impossible.
The Government has to support us, otherwise within our lifetime we are going to see the end of the great British pub.
After the most horrendous couple of years for hospitality with the pandemic, it infuriates me that the Chancellor is even contemplating raising business rates and taxes for the pub trade.
It is mind-blowing that the Government even thinks it is okay to end the 75 per cent reduction in rates for pubs, clubs and hotels along with putting up alcohol duty.
Our beer has gone up so much this year.
In 2017 a typical barrel of standard lager cost £180.
Now it costs £250 — a rise of just under 40 per cent.
And a barrel of premium beer used to be £200 and is now £290 — that’s an increase of 45 per cent.
A grim future
If we were to pass that percentage rise on to our guests then that would mean a pint of standard lager that cost £4.80 in 2017 would now be £6.70!
And if we sold a premium lager for £7.70 a pint no one would come out to our pub.
So we soak up the increase by simply selling beer that we don’t make money on.
Energy bills are up by 300 per cent per kW unit since 2017.
A drum of oil is up by 100 per cent, a case of butter up by 250 per cent and the minimum wage is up by 37 per cent.
Even before the pandemic, pubs struggled to make money.
How are we expected to make it work on those numbers?
It is amazing that any pubs are still running.
The taxes, the energy costs, the beer rates, the water rates are all ludicrously high, compared to any other country.
I hope Jeremy Hunt listens to us.
The thought of the Chancellor increasing costs for the hospitality sector makes me so angry.
I would like rates and alcohol duty to be lowered rather than just frozen because they are already astronomical.
Hospitality suffered such a walloping during the pandemic and it would just add insult upon injury.
It will be a kick in the face to an extremely hard-working industry.
Like many pubs we receive the 75 per cent rate reduction, which is currently due to end next April.
I dread to think what will happen if the business rates discount is not kept.
We are running such a tight ship at the moment that, to be honest, it is going to cause real issues.
If Mr Hunt does not do what we are calling for then hospitality faces a very grim future.
We cannot keep pulling things out of the bag. We’re exhausted.
There are going to be people asking, “What is the point?”
There is no light at the end of the tunnel if they do not freeze beer duty and keep the business rates reduction next Wednesday.
The Sun’s new Save Our Sups campaign is so sorely needed