UK Chancellor reduced beer duty because of impact on jobs and pubs

Chancellor George Osborne: “I see it as an important step forward, what was announced in the Budget, but not the last word”.

UK Chancellor George Osborne had some interesting comments on the importance of the beer industry to employment and the economy on a visit to Marston’s Brewery in Burton yesterday.

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When asked by the press what had convinced him to reduce beer duty in the recent Budget he stated, “I think what convinced me was the economic argument and the fact that it was having an impact on jobs and on pub closures and that is not what we want our tax system to be doing.

“These are difficult economic times and there’s not enough  money to do all the things we’d like to do,” he continued, “So you have to make choices and I thought this was a very straightforward way to help a very important industry that employs a lot of people.”

The Chancellor used the Burton brewery visit to meet some senior figures from the beer and pub sector there, telling them, “What I want to talk to the industry about now and to Andrew Griffiths (All Party Parliamentary Beer Group and Burton MP) is what we can do to help young people get employed in the industry, what we can do to support British agriculture which is where it all starts, what we can do with the pub industry, which is where it ends, where the product is sold”.

Interestingly, he concluded, “I see it as an important step forward, what was announced in the Budget, but not the last word”.

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