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News
Duty on beer, cider and spirits cut
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has delivered a third consecutive cut to beer duty and slashed duty on cider and spirits by 2% in today’s 2015 Budget.
Duty on wine meanwhile will be frozen.
Speaking today, Osborne said: “Last year I cut beer duty for a second year in a row and the industry estimates it helped to create 16,000 jobs. Today I am cutting beer duty for a third year in a row taking another penny off a pint. I am also cutting cider duty by 2% to support our producers in the West Country and elsewhere. To back one of the UK’s biggest exports the duty on Scotch whisky and spirits will be cut by 2% as well. Wine duty will be frozen, more pubs saved, jobs created, families supported – and a penny off a pint for the third year in a row.”
The cuts will be bittersweet for the Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA), which had been campaigning for a 2% cut to both wine and spirits as part of its Drop the Duty campaign, supported by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Scotch Whisky Association.
In terms of beer, campaigners will be celebrating a historic third consecutive cut to beer duty with the chancellor taking another penny off a pint, which they have argued would allow the industry to continue to recover.
Frederic Landtmeters, managing director of Molson Coors for UK & Ireland said: “The successive duty cuts have not only given a much needed boost to beer drinkers across the UK, but have helped the wider industry benefit from extra investments – including over 16,000 new jobs created within the sector. We hope that the Government to continues to work in partnership with our industry to build on these successes.”
For reaction from the trade to the cuts click here.
What a waste of time. Being a landlord whats a penny a pint.
There is always political spin on this. Without knowing the abv of the beer that will have “reduced duty of 1p/pint” the Chancellor’s statement is useless. They have a habit of quoting increased duty on lower alcohol beers (eg 3.8%) and reductions on higher (eg 5%). Also, they fail to mention the VAT involvement. At the end of the day the consumer will not see any change except where operators like J D Wetherspoon insist that brewers reduce their prices.
So once again wine has missed out. I have to salute the work of CAMRA in particular and, of course, the Scotch Whisky Association. However, in spite of the fantastic achievements of English Wine Producers the WSTA has failed once again, even in an election year.
I have to ask why?
Agree with Keith. English wine producers deserve a break, but obviously Osbourne sees that any cut in wine duties will ultimately benefit foreign producers more, due to the overwhelming volumes of imported wine vs. UK produced wine sold in this country. Fail to understand also how a cut in spirit duties will back scotch whisky exports, as suggested by your article; rather it will help all those imported spirit brands.