Cost of pint to rise 20p after Reeves tax hikes, pub boss warns
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Brewer Young’s set to raise prices after increases in alcohol duty and employer national insurance contributions. Brewer Young’s will lift its prices by 3.5 per cent following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plan to increase tax on businesses. The move will add about 20 pence to the price of a London pint, taking it to about £6.50. A pint in the rest of the UK will be about 17 pence more.
A spokesman said the company raises its prices each year and this time it needed to recoup increases in the national living wage, alcohol duty and the extra expense of national insurance contributions. Ms Reeves said at the Budget last year that she will raise employers’ national insurance contributions in a bid to raise £22bn for the Treasury.
Simon Dodd, CEO of Young’s said: “Looking ahead, whilst we remain mindful of the headwinds facing consumers and the wider issues that our industry will encounter from the increase in both National Insurance contributions and National Living Wage, our business is in great shape, and we continue to be optimistic about the year ahead.”.
Chief executive officer of Fuller’s, Simon Emeny, warned in November that beer at his pubs and hotels will rise in price by 10 pence. Mr Emeny’s concerns echoed those of Tim Martin, the boss of rival chain Wetherspoon’s, who in the wake of Ms Reeves’s budget said that he and his competitors will have to increase prices.
