Jobs plea to Darling but pubs in a brawl among themselves

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The blame for the slow death of the British pub trade — where beer sales have fallen to their lowest since the 1930s — was laid at the door of Government by industry lobby group the British Beer and Pub Association.

Recession, smoking bans and cheap supermarket beer have led to pubs closing at a rate of six a day but the BBPA said the Government's 18% increase in beer duty last year is hurting just as much. Chief executive David Long said in a submission to Chancellor Alistair Darling ahead of his Budget on 22 April: "Pubs are closing at a record rate and one in 10 of the 600,000 jobs in the sector are under threat.

"The Government is adding to the misery through punitive increases in tax. Last year, the Chancellor increased beer tax by 18% and also set out plans to impose a duty escalator of above-inflation taxes in each of the next four years. His justification then was that duty should rise in line with rising incomes. Today, average earnings are actually falling. The Chancellor must think again."

But the Fair Pint Campaign, run by small independent landlords, says the giant pubcos such as Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns, which fund the BBPA, are signing the death warrant for many pubs.

Fair Pint claims Punch has been trying to sell pub sites to supermarket chains, while Enterprise is accused of selling pubs with the express proviso they cannot be run as pubs in the future.

Fair Pint's Steve Corbett said: "Once again, it seems that the BBPA's public position is a dishonest one. After spending so much time and effort to try to convince MPs that supermarkets are hurting pubs, we find out that the pubcos are closing more pubs to sell to Tesco and other developers."