Thousands of pubs could close because it is not “viable” for landlords to raise the price of a pint to £15 or £20 to cover their soaring energy bills, a leading campaigner has said. Tom Stainer, the chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) group, told the Daily Star the cost of a pint would have to rise to “ridiculous” amounts to match the increase in running costs that pub landlords now face.
He said some pubs were seeing bills go up by 500 per cent to 600 per cent. Mr Stainer added a Camra survey this summer found that more than 50 per cent of the British public think that the cost of a pint is already unaffordable, meaning customers would be put off by a £15 or £20 pint.
“What you can say with surety is you can’t possibly pass on these energy increases and you can’t increase the pint by 500 per cent,” he told the paper. It just isn’t viable for pubs to pass (price hikes this big) on to consumers because people wouldn’t come drink at pubs anyway.”
