http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...s-plummet.html
By Philip Aldrick
Britons drank 117m fewer pints of beer in the three months to September this year than in 2011, despite a strong summer of sport that included the Olympics and the Euro 2012 football.
According to the British Beer & Pub Association’s (BBPA) latest UK quarterly beer barometer beer sales fell by 5.6pc in the third quarter, putting jobs in the brewing and pub sector at risk. Sales of beer in pubs fell by 4.8pc, equivalent to 51m fewer pints than in 2011, while supermarkets and off-license sales were down by 6.5pc.
The figures have given pressure groups more ammunition with which to attack the Government’s high beer taxes. MPs will today push for a full Parliamentary debate on the impact of the beer duty escalator, following a petition for it to be scrapped signed by 100,000 people.
According to analysis by Oxford Economics done for the BBPA, the 5pc rise in beer duty in the March 2012 Budget will not raise any money for the Government because the £92m in extra revenues will be offset by the loss in employment and other taxes caused by the resulting 5,000 redundancies.
BBPA said beer has suffered a 42pc tax increase since March 2008 and is due another rise of 2pc above inflation next March. Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the BBPA said: “If the Government wants to encourage growth, back British business and support local communities, then it must end the Beer Duty escalator.”
The decline in beer sales has been accompanied by a boom in home-brewing. The Home Brew Shop, Britain’s biggest retailer of kits, has said sales have increased by 46pc over the past year.
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