Pubs: a race against time for survival

MPs will today demand urgent action to Save the Great British Pub‚ after alarming figures revealed 16 have been lost in Oldham in just four years.

A panel of five Government ministers will be grilled on why more and more pubs are being forced out of business, in a growing crisis many are comparing to the closure of local post offices.

The emergency summit has been organised by the all-party parliamentary beer group, which warned last night that ministers faced a “race against time” to save the pub.

Big hikes in alcohol tax are blamed for the closures, although cut-price drink in supermarkets, extra costs to tackle binge drinking, greedy pub companies and the smoking ban are also pinpointed.

The MPs released detailed figures revealing the parliamentary constituencies of the 4,271 pubs that have closed since the general election of 2005, at a rate of 22 every week.

According to the research by market analysts nine pubs have shut across Oldham East and Saddleworth and a further seven in Oldham West and Royton.

John Grogan, the beer group’s Labour chairman, said: “The brewing and pub industry is suffering its worst period in a century or more, with many communities losing their pubs every month and dozens of businesses collapsing.

“It is now a race against time, amidst all the other problems of the recession, to get the Government to take notice and to act. Our task is to make the future of the community pub every bit as sensitive an issue in 2009 as the future of the community post office was in 2008.”

Anger centres on Chancellor Alistair Darling’s plans for tax on alcohol to rise by 2 per cent above the rate of inflation for the next four years, starting next month.

The hikes follow a 9 per cent increase in duty in last year’s Budget and a rise in December to offset the VAT cut on all other products — which itself slapped three pence on a pint of beer.

Campaigners have warned that 40,000 jobs are at risk if the closures continue at the current rate, on top of 40,000 thought to have already gone.

The Society of Indepe-ndent Brewers, the Camp-aign for Real Ale, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers and leading breweries will also give evidence today.

Yesterday, licensing minister Gerry Sutcliffe attempted to head off criticism by announcing that pub landlords struggling to get credit could apply for emergency loans of up to £1m, after they were initially excluded from the help for small firms.