Camra: Minimum pricing plan won’t make a difference
The Campaign for Real Ale’s (Camra) chief executive Mike Benner responds to the government’s proposals for a duty-and VAT-based alcohol minimum price:
“Today’s decision means pubs will continue to close as they are undercut by supermarkets selling canned beers at pocket money prices.
“A ban on selling beer at below duty plus VAT will have a negligible impact as supermarkets sell only a tiny proportion of beer at below these levels.”
Trevor Watson of leisure property specialists Davis Coffer Lyons said: “Today’s government proposals on minimum pricing of alcohol seem to achieve absolutely nothing.
“The proposed rates are so low that they will have absolutely no effect on the disparity of pricing between supermarkets and the on-trade. I don’t suppose the man in the street will even notice any change in prices.
“The original intention was to introduce a ban on supermarkets selling alcohol at below cost price. This has been replaced with a minimum price, which is set at the cost of duty plus VAT.
“Somehow the government has overlooked all the real costs of production and distribution, ingredients, manufacture, wages, plant and machinery, advertising, etc all of which are on the increase.
“Minimum pricing is a major opportunity for the government to endorse its stated strategy of supporting pubs in the community. At the proposed levels, there will be absolutely no redistribution of the consumption of alcohol between the on- and the off-trades.
“This is a missed opportunity to really make an impact on our society and help support an industry which is unloved by government but which is very much loved by our citizens.”
