Community pubs minister claims pub trade can help revive the high street
Speaking at the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group’s (APPBG) 20th annual dinner in London last night, Brandon Lewis said that the trade can help drive footfall to town centres.
He said: “Our high streets and our town centres are changing at a pace more than anything we could imagine a few years ago because everything we do now, we do pretty much online, we don’t need to go to town centres to do our shopping.
“So we need our town centres and our high streets to be places that attract people for more than just one big round of shopping they need to do. The hospitality industry, pubs and beer have a huge role to play in that.
“So please help spread the message that the night time economy can be good for areas and the hospitality industry has a role to play in attracting footfall.”
Lewis also called on MPs and members of the pub trade in the room to find out more about Pub is the Hub.
“If have you haven’t heard of Pub is the Hub, make a point of finding out. They do a fantastic job working with pubs that need to or want to diversify. It’s a great organisation.”
He also praised the Perceptions Group, calling it a “great thing the industry is doing”.
During the evening Andrew Griffiths MP and chair of the APPBG praised the pub industry for its commitment and hard work in scrapping the beer duty escalator.
Griffiths said: “I stood before you last year and I applauded you to get behind the campaign to scrap the beer duty escalator. It was killing our industry, it was closing our pubs, and it was costing jobs across the country.
“I made a plea for the industry to unite. Little did I know that 12 months on we would be celebrating such a fantastic success.”
He added that the cutting of the beer duty by 1p gave the industry “a boost that nobody ever expected”.
He paid special tribute to the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for its work in securing 100,000 signatures on the e-petition, the needed figure to secure a debate on the issue in Parliament.
“We had thousands of CAMRA members coming in to rinse their MPs on the importance of brewing for beer and pubs in their constituencies, and that played a huge dividend in winning the argument and getting MPs to back the campaign,” he continued.
“We recognise just how important the brewing industry is to jobs and employment in our constituencies. We recognise that we brew the best beer in the world in this country and it’s an industry we should support. So thank you for that.”
Griffiths praised the success of the APPBG over the past 20 years and said it was “the perfect example” of an interest group that is “open, transparent and completely honest about its funding, but that stands up for our constituents”.
