Pub closure rates have slowed from the high of 52 a week to 39 a week but remain at historically high levels, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned.
A net total of 1,013 pubs shut their doors between July and December 2009, with the loss of 10,000 jobs. A total of 2,365 pubs closed during the whole of 2009, reaching a peak of 52 a week in the first half of the year.
There are now 52,500 pubs in Britain — well down on the 58,600 operating when the Licensing Act came into force in 2005. The Government is set to lose £250m in tax revenues this year if the current closure rate continues.
The BBPA said that the freehouse sector was hardest hit with 576 closures (22 a week), compared to 320 tenanted pubs (12 a week). However, when a lessee goes out of business, it is not recorded as a closure in the statistics.
Over the period, 735 pubs were transferred into freehouse ownership, fuelled by Punch's sell-off to tenants.
Food pubs continue to weather the storm better than wet-led venues with 130 pub closures compared to 883 wet-led pubs.
Pressures remain
Despite the slowing rate, the BBPA warned that significant pressures remain on the sector especially in the form of beer duty rises and red tape.
"The UK economy may be edging out of recession, but times remain very tough for pubs," said BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds.
"Continuing pub closures, and the 5% decline in pub beer sales we reported last week, confirm that pubs are not out of the woods yet.
"In the current climate, the last thing pubs need is a higher tax bill in the Budget. This won't help the public finances either, as closing pubs, job losses and falling beer sales mean less tax revenue for the Treasury."
She added: "Pubs make a significant and valuable contribution to both the national economy and community life. It's time for Government to work with our industry and put into practice policies that support pubs and local communities."
Churn rates
The figures came under fire once again from anti-beer tie group Fair Pint. It pointed out that the figure don not take account of business failures, known as churn, in the tenanted sector.
"We will only see a true analysis of the state of the pub sector when the BBPA and its members release a full breakdown of the number of tenant failures and the level of churn within their estates," said Fair Pint founding member Steve Corbett.