Job fears as price of pint to rise

The price of a pint will increase by more than 5p and thousands of jobs will be lost, campaigners have said after the Government confirmed rises in alcohol duty rates.

The Treasury said rates will increase by 2% above RPI inflation, so prices will rise by 5% from next week.

Camra said the announcement will lead to the price of a pint increasing by between 5p and 10p in pubs and means that beer duty has increased by more than 40% since 2008.

Chief executive Mike Benner said: "The fact Britons are forced to pay over 40% of the EU beer tax bill but consume only 13% of the beer sold in Europe is remarkable.

"British beer in a pub is so heavily hit with duty and VAT, the taxman's whirlwind hikes translate to him guzzling a third of every pint served, a shadow cast over the beer drinker depriving people of an affordable night down their local."

The British Beer and Pub Association said the average new price of a pint of lager will be £3.17, adding that beer tax was now 12 times higher than in Germany, with pubs having to pay £2,800 each in extra duty.

Meanwhile, a smokers' group has slammed the duty increase on duty on tobacco products as a "smugglers' charter".

Duty will rise by 5% above inflation from 6pm - the equivalent of 37p on a packet of cigarettes.

Simon Clark, director of Forest, said: "This is a smugglers' charter. More and more consumers will turn to the black market or buy their tobacco abroad.

"The elderly, the low paid and the unemployed will be hit the hardest but this is an attack on all law-abiding smokers who support Britain's retailers by purchasing their cigarettes at home."