Beer fans may soon be paying an extra 50p for their pints, according to a pub boss.
City Pub Company chairman Clive Watson says pubs are in a dire place due to low footfall and the increase of business costs.
Watson made an appearance on the BBC's Today Programme and said punters could be forking out between 40p - 50p in London alone.
He said pubs were taking a "whacking" due to staffing issues also, Lincolnshire Live reports.
One beer supplier told him it would hike prices by seven per cent, he added.
Watson said: "The first week [of January] was pretty brutal to be honest, and it was very, very quiet even for a normal January. Sales just almost non-existent."
The average cost of a UK pint is £4.07, according to figures from the British Beer and Pub Association published in the Sun .
Londoners pay £4.84 for theirs on average, but the cost of many pints in the capital is now more than £6.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade organisation UK Hospitality, said: “This is weighing very heavily on these businesses, which have had nothing but a torrid time, and the price of a pint and a meal out will have to rise.”
One of the most vocal critics of the tax paid by pubs is Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin.
Last September Wetherspoons cut the price of booze and food by 7.5 per cent for one day , to protest high VAT rates.
The pub chain is making the price cuts in protect against hospitality tax rates shooting up.
Pubs like Wetherspoons normally pay 20 per cent VAT, but were still paying five per cent thanks to government cuts to help the sector weather the pandemic.
That five per cent rate rose to 12.5 per cent at the end of September 2021, and will go back to 20 per cent this year.
But Wetherspoons chairman Tim Martin wants the tax rate to be maintained at five per cent to keep pubs afloat, and cut prices in his pubs to highlight this.
Martin said pubs are suffering with competition from supermarkets selling booze.
Supermarkets don't pay VAT on food, which helps them sell alcohol at cut-price rates.
The cost of some booze will fall under plans unveiled by chancellor Rishi Sunak in his 2021 Budget - but not until next year.
The cost of beer and sparking wine will fall, but whisky and vodka prices will rise, all from February 2023.
Currently there is a complicated system of 15 separate tax bands for booze, across four main areas: beer , cider, spirits and wine.
But now the chancellor will do away with the old system and bring in a new one. The stronger a drink is, the more it will be taxed.
This means tax cuts on drinks like normal-strength beer, wine, cider and liqueurs, but hikes on spirits like whisky.
How much popular drink prices will change:
- Stella Artois, pint - down 3p from £3.80 to £3.77
- Frosty Jacks cider, 750ml bottle - up 45p from £3.70 to £4.15
- Kopparberg strawberry and lime cider, pint - down 13p from £3.80 to £3.67
- Hardy's Merlot wine, 750ml bottle - up 35p from £7 to £7.35
- Blossom Hill rosé, 750ml bottle - down 12p from £8 to £7.88
- Buckfast fortified wine, 750ml bottle - up 81p from £8.50 to £9.31
- Bailey's Irish cream, 750ml bottle - down 41p from £17 to £16.69
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