Alcohol duty continues to rise

Published: 23 March, 2011

There was no relief for the drinks trade in the Budget, as the Chancellor failed to halt the progress of the controversial alcohol duty escalator.

Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that alcohol duty will rise at 2% above inflation, which stands at currently 5.5%. It means an overall increase of 7.5%.

Osborne said: "There will be no further changes to announce to the rates (on alcohol duty) put in place by the previous government."

As already announced, duty will be halved for beer below 2.8% abv and will increase for stronger beers above the 7.5% increase across the board.

A recent survey carried out by harpers.co.uk showed that eight out of 10 drinks business anticipate their turnover and profitablilty would be hit by the duty increase, while 4% said they would seriously have to consider selling up or closing.

The survey also showed that drinks businesses were divided over how well the trade presented its case on drinks taxation ? 56% said there was broad agreement, while of the 44% who felt there was disunity in the trade, 16% described it as "extremely divided and failing to present its case with any clarity".

Check back to harpers.co.uk for the trade's reaction to the story.

Printer friendly version