Norfolk brewer says takeaway pints push contradicts alcohol duty 'shake-up'
Drinking spots no longer need permission from local authority's to sell this way, until 2025
A brewery from Norfolk is telling us that allowing pubs to continue serving takeaway pints contradicts the earlier shake-up of alcohol tax.
Drinking spots no longer need permission from local authority's to sell this way, until 2025.
But these sales will cost pubs more than a pint sold inside, as the take-out drinks count as an 'off-sale'.
"They are going to stop doing take-away until this is resolved"
David Holliday is the owner of Moon Gazer Ale, based near Fakenham:
"How are they going to enforce that on 100,000 pubs and some many casks, checking whether you've paid full duty. Pubs I'm speaking to are telling me that they are going to stop doing take-away until this is resolved.
"If a pub sells any of that cask of beer they've got, as an off-sale, then it comes out of the new alcohol duty scheme. So, the whole of the cask of beer has to pay alcohol duty at the full-rate. So the pubs won't do it".
"That is where this initiative is good"
"The Government made a very good initiative on August 1st. Which said that on a smaller cask of beer going into the pubs, they will pay a lesser duty rate than beer going into super-markets and shops. Trying to get the pubs an advantage, that is where this initiative is good"
"They cut themselves off at the beginning of the initiative by changing the duty rates. Lots of good headlines but it's unworkable and it's a pointless gimmick
What has the Government said?
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says this will give a boost for businesses and the economy.