Beer sales in pubs are continuing to plummet and the government should cut tax to give the sector a boost, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).
The trade group's quarterly beer barometer for the UK shows that beer sales in pubs in July, August and September were down 4.7 per cent on the same period last year.
In that time supermarket and off-licence sales have gone up 4.4 per cent leading to a drop in the overall market of 0.8 per cent.
The 4.7 per cent drop in pubs means that 4.3 million fewer pints were drunk by customers in those months.
And, according to the BBPA, as well as helping contribute to the 52 pubs closing every week, the decline is also resulting in a drop in tax revenue for the government of £174m in the first nine months of the year.
BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: "These latest figures signal that overall beer sales are beginning to stabilise, but beer sales in pubs continue to decline, contributing to a pub closure rate of 52 per week. This is a fragile situation, that could well be jeopardised by the wrong decisions on tax in the forthcoming Pre-Budget Report.
"Government should announce that when VAT goes back up in January, it will cut the eight per cent tax increase it put on beer in the Pre-Budget Report last year, which coincided with the VAT decrease. This would be revenue neutral for government and a boost to beleaguered pubs.
"Beer sales are the backbone of Britain's pubs, which employ thousands, and act as the hub for many communities. We have already suffered beer tax increases totaling 20 per cent in the past two years - a tax increase of £600 million during a record recession. Further punitive tax increases could snuff out any recovery, with further job losses."