Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Brexit pub guarantee’, as announced in his first budget yesterday, has been met with confusion by the hospitality industry. Hunt announced yesterday that tax on draught beer in pubs will be frozen from August 1.
He said that duty on a pint in a pub will be ‘up to 11p lower than the duty in supermarkets, a differential we will maintain as part of a new Brexit pubs guarantee’. He went on: “British ale may be warm, but the duty on a pint is frozen.”
However, behind the buzzy 'Brexit' related headlines, some operators have pointed out that the ‘small print’ doesn’t quite read that way. Duty is in fact set to increase by £225 million across the sector later this year.
