The life and soul of Britain's communities

A manifesto for supporting and promoting Britain's beer and pub trade

Britain's beer and pub trade is at the heart of our economic and community life. More than just another industry, it is part of our cultural heritage. But while preserving something of lasting value in our communities, it is a trade that continues to adapt in response to changes in the social life of modern Britain.

Since becoming chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association in September 2009, I have been struck by the contribution pubs make to their local economies and which brewing makes to the national economy.

Pubs inject on average £80,000 a year into their local community and pay £107,000 in tax.

Pubs and brewing employ 540,000 people directly and 380,000 in associated trades.

Ninety per cent of all beer drunk in Britain is brewed domestically. While our trade has been badly hit by recession - with pub closures running at more than 50 a week - we have great potential to help lead Britain back to growth.

Research by Oxford Economics shows that a 2 per cent cut in beer tax could create 5,000 jobs by 2011. In addition, Government tax revenues would actually increase. In fact, even a cut of 8 per cent would still be revenue-neutral. So the policy of tax increases is not only damaging to this great industry, but not even economic good sense.

It is time to start valuing a unique product and to build a consensus around the simple proposition that the British beer and pub trade matters too much to our community life to be lost.

This manifesto is published just months before the next General Election. It sets out the principles we believe will help to sustain this unique and valued industry. We are now looking to politicians and political parties, national and local, to support them and develop practical policies that safeguard what is best about community life in Britain today.

Brigid Simmonds OBE

Chief Executive, British Beer & Pub Association

Core principles

All those who wish to see a vibrant brewing and pub trade should pledge their support for the objectives and policies contained in this manifesto, and its six guiding principles:

1) Put pubs at the heart of a campaign to strengthen community life

2) Lower the tax and regulatory burden on pubs and beer, recognising the vital role the sector plays as a provider of jobs and supporter of the local economy

3) Limit the proliferation of new codes and restrictions - enforce existing laws properly instead

4) Promote a policy environment that encourages consumers to choose low alcohol drinks such as beer

5) Recognise the traditional role of pubs as the place for responsible, social drinking, in a more balanced strategy for tackling abuse

6) Work in partnership with the brewing and pub sector to promote social responsibility through support for initiatives like Pubwatch, Crime and Disorder Partnerships, Best Bar None, Purple Flag, the Campaign for Smarter Drinking and Drinkaware

This manifesto outlines policy proposals which build on the issues the industry has been campaigning on over the last year.

These include the need for reduced tax and regulation, the promotion of the pub as a vital part of Britain's leisure industry and the active involvement of the British pub and beer industry in developing solutions to encouraging safe and responsible drinking.

With a General Election approaching, we are therefore asking all politicians and political parties to sign up to our non-partisan manifesto.

The support we seek need not be divisive or controversial, but a consensus around the simple proposition that the British beer and pub trade matters too much to our community life to be lost.

Beer and pubs - the facts

• Brewing and pubs contribute £28 billion to the UK economy - more than the airline, clothes retailing and broadcasting industries
• Tourists and visitors to Britain make 13.2 million visits to our pubs each year, with pubs consistently on the list of positive perceptions of the UK
• The pub and brewing industry employs 540,000 people directly and 380,000 in associated trades
• 27 per cent of the adult population visit a pub every week

Beer and pubs in crisis

• 112,000 jobs will be lost across the sector by 2012
• 3,500 pubs have closed since the Budget of March 2008
• Beer sales in pubs are down 16 million pints a day compared to their peak in 1979
• £600 million has been added to the sector's beer tax bill since the Budget of March 2008

The heart of Britain's social life

It was George Orwell who talked about people going to pubs as much for conversation as for beer. In the six decades since, pubs have changed, along with the country they reflect.

But some things don't change. It is as true as ever that, fundamental though the quality of the beer is, what people value about pubs goes even deeper than a good pint. Whether people consider themselves regulars in the traditional sense, or use pubs occasionally as one of many leisure options, or even visit the local hardly at all, there is something about the British pub which inspires affection.

This has been reflected in the polling commissioned by the beer and pub trade as part of our campaign to protect something that means more to many people than an industry with a product to sell. But it is an industry, and our sales are down to levels not seen since the Great Depression. We have to make a living.

The current rate of pub closures is accounting for five per cent of pubs a year. Action is needed if we are to stop many wonderful pubs becoming museums of a lost way of life. But pubs remain a steady and valued source of employment throughout the country, in as many communities as any industry.

Britain's brewers range from two-barrel operations in pubs, to family businesses of great antiquity which have been supporting the local economy for hundreds of years, through to world renowned international brewing companies. This is an industry which produces around 90 per cent of what it sells right here in Britain.

Even the smallest village pub supports much more employment than the friendly faces behind the bar. The pub supply chain runs much deeper than Britain's brewers. It runs through to

Britain's agriculture, as well as the local food producers, local builders and craftsmen, food producers, machinery suppliers and all the others who make the whole trade work.

Britain's pubs - adapting to what's new, preserving what's best

It is a tradition too valuable to lose. But it is more than a tradition. Pubs have changed enormously - not beyond recognition, because the pub remains essentially what it was, the life and soul of the community.

Think back a generation to the pub that was little more than a place to talk over a pint, and compare it with the variety of pubs today offering first class cuisine, great coffee, play areas, live football. Pubs reflect a changing Britain, offering the choice that people now demand, while staying true to something lasting.

Some will object that this variety includes noisy bars where young adults go simply to get drunk. But this represents a small minority, and most pubs remain places where people go to drink sensibly and socially. The mix of generations, types of classes and characters still tends, as it always did, to act as a restraint on excessive behaviour.

British beer - a national icon

There is much that the British love about their pubs. But beer is at the heart of it. Beer has changed, as have pubs, as this is a trade that responds to its customers. British beer is one of the nation's iconic products - renowned for its quality, its variety, and as a hugely successful blend of traditional and modern. How many industries have re-invented themselves as successfully since the 1970s, and how many of Britain's great craft industries still exist today?

Despite the challenges faced by the industry in recent years, beer remains the nation's favourite adult drink. A low-strength fermented beverage containing, on average, 4 per cent alcohol, it has long been recognised as the drink of choice for socialising and conviviality. Phrases such as 'we must meet up for a beer' are an established part of common parlance.

Pubs and beer are part of our heritage. Britain is not an industrial museum, but a creative country that knows how to preserve what's best while embracing the future. Britain is a country that knows the value of community in a time of change. The pub is the life and soul of our communities. Faced with recession, with social change, with ever more choices in leisure, with tighter margins and tougher commercial conditions, pubs also have to cope with steep rises in tax and constant demands for ever more legislation and regulation that would punish the responsible majority of our customers while doing little to deter a small minority.

No special treatment, but policies that support the pub

Pubs may be a national institution, but they are subject to the disciplines of private enterprise which from time to time inflict hardship.

Pubs don't ask for special treatment, yet receive it from the Treasury. We are singled out for a two per cent yearly increase in beer tax on top of inflation. And the Chancellor's duty rise and temporary cut in VAT from December 2008 was structured deliberately to deny any benefit to the thousands of British businesses that make and sell beer.

What we do ask for is a constructive and creative approach to policy making that finds ways of shielding this valued industry from its own perfect storm of social, commercial and fiscal factors. We want to set a positive agenda that any political party could pick up in government.

We will be asking all parties to sign up to this agenda, because the fate of the British pub should be a matter of consensus. It is not enough for political leaders to say they support this British institution while offering nothing specific to improve the current harsh environment.

None of our suggested measures would cost the earth or have any adverse consequences.

They would merely give the majority of pubs a fighting chance. All we ask is a full measure of support, in action not words, from national decision-makers.

All political parties should:

• Promote pubs as icons of Britain, giving pubs a key role in tourism policy.
• Promote rate relief for community pubs. The Institute for Public Policy Research has proposed 50 per cent rate relief for pubs that act as local community hubs.
• Promote the benefits of careers, skills and professional development opportunities for graduates and job seekers within the sector.
• End the two-per-cent-above-inflation annual beer duty escalator, and support the reversal of the 8 per cent duty increase of November 2008.
• Look at ways in which the duty system could better support the pub, such as a reduced rate of tax on lower strength beers.
• Examine the benefits of a reduced rate of VAT on bar sales and restaurant food. Pubs sell more meals than all of Britain's restaurants put together.
• Promote the greater use of the Sustainable Communities Act to help community pubs and loans to support community activities.
• Promote pubs as the home of live music, endorsing and supporting the recommendations of the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.
• Explicitly recognise the industry as part of the solution to alcohol misuse and harm.
• Work with the industry in the promotion of programmes that encourage responsible drinking.
• Work with pubs and supermarkets to put an end to irresponsible alcohol promotions, and using alcohol as a loss leader.
• Pursue flexible policies on alcohol labelling, through the current voluntary agreement.

Pledge your support

Pubs are the centrepiece for social clubs, sports clubs and music; many provide vital local services that have been lost, such as village shops, post offices, parcel delivery, school meals and pensioner meals. And pubs unite their communities behind thousands of national and local causes, raising millions of pounds every year for charities across Britain. They are egalitarian and inclusive, attracting people from all walks of life. Everyone is welcome in the pub.

Beer and pubs are part of the solution to current concerns around alcohol related harm. The sector is playing a major role in seeking to promote and encourage the responsible enjoyment of the social consumption of alcoholic drinks.

Beer is a drink with a low alcohol content compared with other drinks.

We urge all parties to pledge general support for developing the kind of policies outlined in this manifesto. All parties speak of their commitment to community life, and ground their policies in an appeal to our sense of what makes Britain the country it is.

By supporting the pub, the parties have a chance to show action, not words. We urge them to take it.