DRINKERS will be raising a glass to Jeremy Hunt today for announcing a freeze on alcohol taxes.
The Chancellor used his Spring Budget to hold booze duties at their current rate rather than increase them with inflation.
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The Chancellor said: “Today I have decided to extend the alcohol duty freeze until February 2025.
“This benefits 38,000 pubs all across the UK – and on top of the £13,000 saving a typical pub will get from the 75 per cent business rates discount I announced in the Autumn.
“We value our hospitality industry and we are backing the great British pub.”
The move was backed the sector who welcomed the move that will help tens of thousands of pubs.
READ MORE ON SPRING BUDGET
Alcohol duty typically goes up in line with inflation each year, but last year it was frozen until 2025.
It means producers should not have to hike the price of beer, wine and spirits to offset raised levies.
Spring Budget at a glance
The announcement marks a major win for The Sun’s Save Our Sups campaign to help both bosses and punters.
Hospitality chiefs have warned any further hike in the duty on beer, wine and cider would force thousands more pubs to close.
Most read in Money
Analysis from The Sun’s Political Editor Harry Cole
SO Jeremy Hunt has fired the starting gun on the election campaign with a highly political Budget.
There was lots of shouting, but with the cupboard bare, not as many giveaways as a Chancellor would have liked on the eve of battle.
As he delivered what will likely be the last Budget before Britain goes to the polls this autumn, the glum faces behind him would suggest Tory MPs did not think it would be enough to turn around the Conservatives bleak numbers.
Even with some tax cuts, the problem the Government has is the tax burden still remains at the highest level since 1947.
And nobody really thinks that will be going down rather than up under Labour.
On top of that, the cold hard numbers are hard to spin.
The small print of the Budget shows an extra £186.6 billion in stealth taxes over the next five years: more than double what the combined £105.4 billion savings from the combined tax cuts last November and today.
Also painful is the OBR’s prediction that net migration is going to stay at around 300,000 indefinitely and Tory tax changes have actually made Britain’s workshy issues worse.
With more people being dragged into higher tax bands, it turns out fewer people are bothering to work harder.
But the shape of the Tory manifesto is coming into sight, with the abolition of National Insurance clearly going to feature as a flagship election issue.
The dual taxation of wages through NICS and Income Tax has been a long running quirk of our complex tax system, but abolishing it completely would be eye-wateringly expensive.
That said, Hunt has reduced it by 4p, down to 8p in the pound on earnings in just six months, hence why he is dangling the prospect of phasing it out completely over the five years.
But given there are huge bills coming down the path for national security, massive compensation payouts, and sustainable public spending, is that loss of Treasury revenue really credible?
I suspect we will spend a large part of the election campaign arguing about that.
Hunt peppered his hour-long speech with attacks on the opposition parties, and countless name checks – and real cheques – for key marginal seats the Government hope to save at the election.
Given how many times he mentioned his own seat in Surrey and the vicious pop at the Liberal Democrats who could oust him, its clear the Chancellor is as worried about his own seat as he is about anyone else’s.
It was the tetchiest Budget I can remember, with countless interventions from the Deputy Speaker needed after Labour heckled their way through the measures.
If this is the shape of the election campaign to come, it’s going to be a very long year…
Mark Kent, of the Scotch Whisky Association, hailed the alcohol tax freeze, saying: “Support for Scotch is good for industry, good for the economy and good for consumers who enjoy a dram.”
A Heineken spokesperson said: “We welcome the freezing of alcohol duties until February 2025.
“This freeze will help bring out the best in the great British Pub. Licensees across the UK now need further help to thrive, in the form of long-term, fundamental reform to the business rates system which despite recent support still sees UK pubs overpaying by £400m.”
Fuel duty will also be frozen but it’s bad news for smokers, who face stumping up a record £16 for a packet of cigarettes and a new tax on vapes.
Mr Hunt is using his likely last Budget before the election to woo voters with giveaways using what little headroom he has.
Brits boosted by £450 tax cut & child benefit overhaul as Hunt freezes alcohol and fuel duties in giveaway Budget
Mounting an attack on Labour and the Lib Dems, he told MPs: “They will destroy jobs with 70 new burdens on employers, reduce opportunities by halving new apprenticeships and risk family finances with new spending that pushes up tax.”
Warnings from bosses prompted alcohol freeze
AHEAD of today’s freeze, hundreds of beer bosses had pleaded with Jeremy Hunt to give them relief in the Budget.
In a letter to the Chancellor, chiefs at the likes of Asahi, Budweiser and Greene King warned hundreds of pubs could go bust unless crippling rates are brought down at the Spring Budget.
In their February letter, beer bosses said: “No government should turn a blind eye to the erosion of such an integral economic and cultural asset.
“By underpinning a successful and thriving beer and pub sector, we will provide you the short cut to achieving genuine Levelling Up in every corner of the country.
“The Spring Budget could help ensure that the Great British beer and pub sector can help contribute to wider growth and prosperity for the local high street and the wider national economy.”
Meanwhile, leaders in the spirits industry have warned that bars and restaurants could close doors “for good” unless duties on gin and whiskey are also slashed.
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