UK pubs face closure crisis unless price of pint soars to 20, CAMRA chief warns

EXCLUSIVE: Pubs in the UK would need to put pint prices up unrealistically large amounts to stay afloat in cost of living - the only option that can save our boozers is help from the government

Harry Thompson Senior Features Writer

07:26, 04 Sep 2022Updated 17:29, 04 Sep 2022

Energy: Pub landlord warns industry to brace for carnage

The cost of a pint will need to increase to around '15 to 20' if pubs are to survive the cost of living crisis without help from the government.

That's according to Tom Stainer, the Chief Executive of real ale campaign group CAMRA, who told the Daily Star that pub landlords are facing a five to six-time increase in their running costs that threatens to put a huge number of venues out of business.

He said theres a real crisis going on and we are seeing a perfect storm of factors that will affect just about every pub out there.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, Tom said the costs for pubs were skyrocketing: We're seeing pubs where their energy costs are going up by not just a little bit - we're talking 500% to 600%.

[Huge numbers of pubs up and down the country could be facing disaster (stock)]

Huge numbers of pubs up and down the country could be facing disaster (stock)(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The chief said that, put very simply, how much would 500% be on a 5 pint - youre talking ridiculous amounts of money, 15 or 20 quid for a pint.

But despite prices of a pint creeping up across the country, the actual increases needed to sustain boozers in this situation are so enormous that they aren't realistically going to happen.

What you can say with surety is you can't possibly pass on these energy increases and you can't increase the pint by 500%, he said.

You'd be talking about pounds of pounds added on to the average cost per pint - and we already know because we did a survey this summer that more than 50% of the British public now believe the cost of a pint is already unaffordable.

[The cost of a pint is creeping up (stock)]

The cost of a pint is creeping up (stock)(Image: Getty Images)

To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .

And that was done before the cost of living crisis before everyone was looking at their own money. And before these huge energy bills came in.

It just isn't viable for pubs to pass [price hikes this big] on to consumers because people wouldn't come drink at pubs anyway.

He said that, given the sheer size of the cost jump and improbability of paying for the costs through beer however successful businessman you are the pub you're running you cannot do a 500% increase on your energy costs.

[Government help is vital to the survival of our pubs ]

Government help is vital to the survival of our pubs (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

So thousands [of pubs] could be affected by this. And they can close - and the difference with [pubs compared to] other sorts of businesses is once a pub closes it very rarely comes back.

We need government action we need the government to actually start stepping in and doing something about energy costs, doing something about business rates, something about the tax people have to pay on beer.

Pubs pay one of the largest business rates of any business [type] compared to other businesses and few have any money stored away for a rainy day because they used it all in the pandemic.

[Prices need to rise to "15-20" per pint]

Prices need to rise to "15-20" per pint(Image: PA)

Stainer said that in many ways things are even worse now than they were during the pandemic because then, among other things, we had a reduction of business rates, we had the VAT cut on food.

Now he, like the rest of the industry is begging for immediate government action with thousands of boozers hanging in the balance and just hopes that with a new prime minister stepping in, the top of their inbox is going to be doing some help hospitality.

READ NEXT:

Article continues below

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.

[Google Preferred Source Badge]

At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the "Do Not Sell or Share my Data" button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Terms and Conditions.