Time4Cannock

Marston's threat shows the damage cost is doing to hospitality. The threatened closure of Marston's Brewery in Burton upon Trent should be ringing alarm bells in Westminster. I lead Staffordshire County Council and I've worked in hospitality since the early 80s, and I've never seen our sector in a worse state. Since COVID, it has been battered, and the biggest reason is cost. Burton upon Trent, here in Staffordshire, is Britain's capital of brewing. If brewing is in trouble here, it's in trouble everywhere. My heart goes out to every worker at Marston's and their families. For some, this brewery has been a way of life for generations, passed down from grandparents to parents to children. They are worried sick right now, and they deserve every effort we can make to keep it open. Carlsberg Britvic points to falling cask ale sales. Sales of all alcohol are down. But that's only part of the picture. There has been a huge drop in people going out and socialising, and a large number of pubs, bars and clubs have closed their doors. 161 pubs shut in the first three months of this year alone, nearly two a day. A third of our nightclubs have gone since 2020. This is far more than a change in society. One of the biggest reasons is cost. I owned and ran what I believe is the UK's longest-running nightclub under the same owner. Trust me, at today's costs, much of our sector is simply not economically viable. Our hospitality sector is one of the most heavily taxed in Europe. Take VAT. We charge 20%. France, Spain and Italy charge 10%. Germany has cut VAT on restaurant food to 7%. The European average is 12.8%. Then there's beer and alcohol duty, again among the highest in Europe. Our brewers pay twelve times more duty than brewers in Germany or Spain. After all that, a pub makes around 12p on a pint. Add the red tape and the never-ending legislation, and you can see why so many good operators are handing back the keys. I've written to the Minister to discuss how we save this brewery, and I've asked Carlsberg Britvic for a meeting to find out where the pressures are, and how we can help. VAT is the problem. But so is beer duty, and most certainly business rates and energy costs. Together they are killing off the Great British pub. This matters far beyond the balance sheet. Humans are social creatures. We need to get out, see each other, talk and laugh together. When that stops happening, people suffer. You can see it in the rise in mental health problems, especially among our younger generation. A pint of beer is as British as a cup of tea. The Great British pub is as English as the village green. And brewing in Burton is as historic as it gets. Monks at Burton Abbey were brewing beer here more than a thousand years ago. We must save our traditions and our heritage sites. Marston's has brewed in Burton since 1834, its Shobnall Road brewery has been making beer since 1875, and it still brews Bass, a name that goes back to 1777. This brewery should definitely be treated as a heritage site. Not as some museum piece, but as a viable business with a future. Martin Murray Leader, Staffordshire County Council #SaveNightlife #SaveHospitality #SaveMarstons . @UKHofficial @morningad @CAMRA_Official @ntiaofficial @Ben_Bradley_32 @CarlsbergUK @UKHospKate