Taxes, Smoking Ban Blamed for Demise of British Pubs

Source from:  Agence France Presse (fr) 12/12/2014

Taxation and a smoking ban are to blame for the "decimation" of the British pub industry, according to a study released Wednesday that said 10,000 pubs had closed since 2006.

The report, "Closing time", by Institute of Economic Affairs found that 21,000 pubs had closed in Britain since 1980, and that this trend was accelerating.

Of the pubs that had closed since 2006, the bulk had shut due to a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and a tax on alcohol, according to the report.

The British seem to be losing their taste for beer, with a 30 percent fall in beer consumption among those aged over 15 between 2003 and 2011, the report noted.

Overall alcohol consumption per person has fallen by 18 percent in the last decade, according to the study, while Britons increasingly chose to drink at home.

"The decline in alcohol consumption has been driven by a fall in beer consumption... pubs have borne the brunt of the decline in alcohol consumption," the report said.

"Britons are not just losing their taste for beer, they are losing their taste for beer in pubs in particular."

It blamed a "duty escalator" introduced in 2011 which increased alcohol taxes two percent above inflation each year until it was abandoned in 2014, making drinking less affordable as wages fell.

Britain's pubs dwindled in number to 48,000 last year, from 60,100 in 2002 and 67,800 in 1982, the report said. Enditem