Fears have been raised that alcohol taxes could put many pubs out of business

Average prices for a pint of beer have topped £3 according to new research which warns that taxes on booze are putting jobs at risk.

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Drinkers in this country pay the second highest taxes in the EU on beer and wine and the fourth highest on spirits.

In fact, figures show that alcohol taxes in the UK are among the highest in Europe, threatening jobs and leading to less being drunk, according to a report by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

The gap between alcohol taxes in the UK and other European countries grew last year, with those in this country eight times higher than in France and 11 than in Germany, said the report.

Little wonder that pubs and brewers locally are worried.

Publicans coming together for the launch of the recent City of Ale festival in Norwich were given a warning from keynote speaker Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide that taxes on alcohol were too high, and that could put many locals out of business. And it is not hard to see why. But will the government step in to help? And are our political masters picking up on the message?

In April Dawn Hopkins, owner of the Ketts Tavern on Ketts Hill and the Rose in Queen’s Road, challenged Labour leader Ed Miliband on his visit to the city to make sure his party would act to save Norwich’s pub trade.

She said the biggest thing a government could do to help was tackle the cut-price alcohol sales in supermarkets, which were undercutting the industry and fuelling binge drinking and anti-social behaviour.

But she also warned that the government’s beer escalator was also making things worse.

With pubs increasingly seen as at the hub of many communities, businesses across the pub and brewing industry have long called on the government to end what they see as punitive tax rates, and for more to be done to tackle the sale of cheap alcohol in supermarkets.

Mike Loren, owner of the Whalebone in Magdalen Road, said: “We all agree totally that taxation on alcohol is too high. Obviously with the 20pc VAT which was announced in January this makes the selling price even higher as far as customers are concerned.

“Clearly with supermarkets, they are buying in large quantities, which obviously gives them an advantage over the buying from the brewers. But because they are selling at a much lower price, it attracts a lower rate of VAT. The differential between the supermarkets and the pubs has never been so great.”

Des D’Souza, manager at Wolf Brewery, based at Besthorpe, near Attleborough, said the taxes added to the challenges facing the industry as a whole.

“Anything in the current climate that going to effect consumers going into pubs to drink and eat is going to prove challenging for pubs striving to stay in business in the current climate,” he said. “From the pubs point of view, it’s a real challenge. They are having to compete with what are very competitively priced drinks in the shops and supermarkets. Talking to publicans who are our customers, that’s the worry.

Sharon Chatten, marketing manager at Woodfordes Norfolk Ales, based at Woodbastwick, near Norwich, agreed the taxes were too high. “Everyone feels that the taxes are for too high and we agree that something needs to be done,” she said. “It just seems that the industry gets stung an awful lot and it affects everyone in the industry.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA, said: “Tax rates have soared to unprecedented levels at a time when household budgets are stretched. Huge, 35pc rises in beer taxes in the past three years have been deeply damaging to British brewers, who operate one of our most innovative and successful manufacturing industries.”