Fight to convince government over duty will go on, says Neame

"Needless to say 'extremely disappointing'." Jonathan Neame's reaction to last week's Budget was echoed across the pub sector, but the chief executive of Kent brewer Shepherd Neame and former head of the British Beer & Pub Association's duty panel, said the fight to convince government of the folly of increases in alcohol duty per the duty escalator of 'two per cent above inflation' would go on.

"This was a Budget for growth and there were lots of positives for small businesses, the construction industry, motorists, home owners and so on," he said. "The exception was the hospitality industry," he added.

But there had been what he called "the very reasonable hope" that the Treasury had listened to what Neame called a "high standard of argument from the industry and its trade bodies of the economic case for not increasing duty".

Neame's disappointment followed what he saw a "positive feedback" from numerous meetings with Treasury officials. "We engaged with the department extremely well. But while we believed we'd won the economic argument there are clearly political forces at work. There isn't a 'them and us' situation between ourselves and the health lobby, but it confuses things," he said.

As in previous Budgets where duty has risen, the industry said the move would not raise more money for the public coffers and jobs would go as pubs closed.

Condemning the duty rise, Mark Hunter, chief executive of Carling brewer Molson Coors, said he was baffled by what he called "the Treasury's continued persecution of beer and pubs in Britain since the 1990s".

Highlighting what he called the government's "disjointed approach to alcohol policy" Hunter also said there should be a minister appointed to oversee national alcohol strategy.

Mark Sheehan, managing director of Coffer Corporate Leisure, said operators needed more help in creating jobs "at a time when national unemployment levels are so high".

The City was fairly nonplussed by the Chancellor's stand on duty, with analysts having factored in the duty escalator. "Share prices haven't reacted across the sector, indicating there was no surprises in the statement," said John Beaumont, partner and head of leisure research at Matrix Investment Bank.

"As Budgets go it wasn't out of the ordinary for the on-trade," he added.