A five-point action plan to help slow down the escalating rate of pub closures has been launched by the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR).
The association has submitted details of its salvage plan to MPs and ministers to coincide with National Community Pubs Week, which began last weekend.
It believes urgent Govern-ment help is needed to arrest the alarming closure rates, with 56 pubs closing down each month.
The plan also aims to throw a lifeline to hundreds of other pubs which are currently only just surviving.
The initiative, which takes the form of an ALMR budget submission, calls on Chancellor Gordon Brown to introduce a range of tax breaks and allowances.
The plan comprises: a freeze on beer duty to help offset rising business costs; reform of the licensing regime to strip out unnecessary costs and administrative burdens; new capital allowances for investment in outdoor smoking facilities; more business support, including an increase in stamp duty and land tax exemptions, plus rate relief, and no new "stealth taxes" on letting beds, eating out or road pricing.
ALMR chief executive Nick Bish said: "Community pubs are at the heart of our industry and a key part of the local economy.
"Even the Government recognises they are an icon of Britishness and deserve to be supported, not suffocated by red tape and driven out of business by spiralling costs."
smiths arms Tied by Red tape
The licensee of a Carmarthenshire pub has closed his doors in protest at soaring overheads and red tape. Host John Bache called time on the Smiths Arms at Llangyndeyrn last week. Bache claims a recent decision by the Welsh Assembly to cut his rural rate relief by half was the final straw.
Bache was forced to pay an extra £2,000 on new licensing costs last year. "It was a body blow, coming on top of our other rising overheads. My wife and I had to take daytime jobs to ensure we could meet the mortgage payments," he revealed. In December, the Welsh Assembly cut his rural rate relief by £300 a year on the grounds that the foot and mouth crisis no longer impacted on his business.