So much for our pub saviour Healey

The appointment of John Healey as the UK's pub minister prompted a wave of optimism — which was shortly squashed by another trade-bashing Budget from the Chancellor, says Roger Protz.

Has John Healey resigned yet? On 19 March he was appointed minister of pubs and a week later Alistair Darling signed the death warrant for thousands more of the very outlets Healey was supposed to promote.

The Budget increase in duty may sound small to the casual observer. But by the time a pint hits the bar drinkers could be paying as much as 20p extra when suppliers, wholesalers and distributors have added a few pennies to "protect their margins".

It all looked so optimistic when Healey was appointed. At last there was someone in Government who cared about pubs. He was sensitive to the needs of licensees who face all the mounting problems of the smoking ban, rising rents and grotesquely unfair competition from supermarkets.

John Healey has a 12-point action plan to help the beleaguered pub. The plan will help stop pubs being demolished. The practice of restrictive covenants — which flies in the face of the notion of a free market — will be banned. This would mean that a pub company that wants to close a pub could not prevent it re-opening as licensed premises under new owners.

The plan will allow pubs to add additional facilities such as newsagents, hairdressers and butchers. The Government will give £3m to help communities to take over and run pubs. There will be reform of the tie to give licensees greater freedom to buy from other suppliers.

Inspirational — just what licensees, small brewers and beer lovers were waiting for. And then along came the Chancellor, the Avenging Angel of the North, with a blow torch that set fire to Healey's action plan.

There was one crucial point missing from Healey's proposals — the supermarkets. Once again, nothing will be done to curb their antisocial behaviour. Beer will continue to be sold cheaper than water or, worse, as loss leaders.

Already the emails and phone calls will have gone from the head offices of the supermarkets to their main suppliers, the global brewers: absorb the duty increase — don't pass it on to us. Once again, the poor benighted pub licensee will be working with both hands tied behind his back. Customers will walk away and buy their slabs of cheap lager from the off-trade — a trait that will intensify when the World Cup gets under way and every supermarket will be loaded to the gunnels with Carlfosterberg sold at giveaway prices.

Molson Coors​

The grotesque way in which the supermarkets distort the beer market and force thousands of pubs out of business was highlighted a couple of weeks ago when the American-Canadian giant Molson Coors said it was making such insignificant profits — a penny a pint — that it was forced to put up its prices.

So on top of Chancellor Darling's hike in beer duty there will be an additional increase for Molson Coors' beers. And that's an increase that will be applied to draught beer as well as packaged.

I'll let you sit down, pour yourself a stiff one and think through the implications of that statement. Molson Coors' plight is the result of selling beer so cheap to the off-trade that it makes minimal profits from the deal. So who is expected to pay for this folly through higher prices? Thee and me — licensees and drinkers.

That well-honed expression "economics of the mad house" springs to mind.

John Healey​

What does John Healey, the minister for what's left of our pubs, think of these events? He is very quiet on the subject. Every day, when he goes to his office, known as the Duck & Grouse, he finds more floorboards have been ripped up and used for fire wood.

Every day he surveys the list of the nation's pubs and draws red lines through those that have closed, unable to cope with the grossly unfair competition from the high-street retailers.

Some of the pubs he can cut from his lists will be specialist cider houses in the West Country. I'm in favour of loading duty on filthy alcopops and brain-blaster strong ciders. But I want the small, craft cider makers to survive and thrive.

But now they face tough times as a result of Darling's massive increase in their levels of duty. Licensees from the West Country, interviewed on television last week, were gloomy about their prospects.

They said many of their regular cider drinkers couldn't afford to drink beer. Now they won't be able to afford cider either.

Is this way Lord Mandelson helps small businesses, by taxing them to the hilt, to such an extent that some of them and the pubs they supply will unable to trade?

We have a Government riven by sleaze and corruption, falling apart at the seams. Its final act is to ensure that the pub, the honest, responsible community pub, will be driven to the precipice as a result of their chaotic and muddled policies.

But spare a thought and a few coppers for John Healey. If you see him selling the Big Issue in a few weeks' time, consider his plight. He was only in his role for a few weeks when his chum in the Treasury made him redundant. No pubs — no job.