The BBPA’s Brigid Simmonds has written to Members of Parliament this week, urging them to support a Parliamentary motion urging a cut in beer duty in the Budget on 18th March. Early Day Motion 625 has been tabled by campaigning MP Andrew Griffiths, and already has the support of 44 MPs from no less than six parties in Parliament.
The EDM urges the Government to consider a further cut in beer duty in the 2015 Budget “which would secure pub jobs, help keep pub pints affordable and support Britain’s much-loved pubs.”
Brigid Simmonds is also urging BBPA members, and all those who would like to see a third, historic cut in beer duty, to write to their MPs urging them to support the measure. Ms Simmonds comments:
“Andrew Griffiths campaigns tirelessly for Britain’s beer and pubs, and we should all urge our MPs to support his Early Day Motion. I hope as many MPs as possible will join calls for a third beer duty cut in this year’s Budget. We can create new jobs and boost the economy, as well as keeping a pint in the pub as affordable as we can.”
The text of EDM 625 is:
That this House welcomes the ending of the beer duty escalator and the positive impact of two successive beer duty cuts in the 2013 and 2014 Budgets in supporting the growth of Britain’s breweries and underpinning confidence in the UK’s pubs; notes that beer duty is now 13 per cent lower than under the tax rises previously planned, a tax reduction that has been popular with pubgoers, leading to an additional 16,000 jobs and in the first six months following the Budget an extra £44 million in investment; and urges the Government to consider a further cut in beer duty in the 2015 Budget which would secure pub jobs, help keep pub pints affordable and support Britain’s much-loved pubs.