The Budget

[Blue Hills]

From the Book of Faces...

Just a quick note to all my non beer focused friends.
The government have announced a 'draft beer duty tax' cut, and some may assume I think this is a good thing. It is not. All the big breweries put their beer into 50l kegs, smaller independent brewers generally use 20 or 30l kegs, for various reasons. The tax cut is for kegs above 40l. This means it is a well designed tax break for the big boys, meaning they can then cut costs and further price out the smaller craft breweries. Yet the headlines will trick people into thinking the crooks in charge have done a good thing. They are just helping out their rich friends again, and have no interest in small business or the average drinker.
This is a further blow to small independent business. I sometimes don't know why I even f***ing bother.

interesting - do you have a source, any comments from small brewers or any association they may have?

 

[Blue Hills]

Many - probably most - small independent UK brewers offer beer in a 9 gallon / 72 pint cask (a "firkin") pretty much as their standard offer to pubs, and have done so for several hundred years. I changed the barrel on one earlier this evening. 72 pints is more than 40 litres so qualifies. Oh and by the way, in the UK it is spelled "draught" not "draft".

convincing sounding rapid rebuttal there, can I ask where you got your take on it from @craigwend ?

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

.... The government have announced a 'draft beer duty tax' cut, and some may assume I think this is a good thing. It is not. All the big breweries put their beer into 50l kegs, smaller independent brewers generally use 20 or 30l kegs, for various reasons. The tax cut is for kegs above 40l.....

Many - probably most - small independent UK brewers offer beer in a 9 gallon / 72 pint cask (a "firkin") pretty much as their standard offer to pubs, and have done so for several hundred years.

As ever both off the above are correct. :-)

My favourite pub has a business model of a range of breweries and many of the products from those breweries and two that are on all of the time. The fixed two come in 72 pints and the variable ones usually in 36 pints but it is not unknown for some strong ones to come in 18 pints.

The 18 pint tends to be 8%-10% plus beers that are usually sold in halves and any wastage due to discarding "over night in the lines" can be expensive if it is not all sold in one or two days.

But if you read https://assets.publishing.service.g...Duty_Review_Consultation_and_CFE_response.pdf
it is very easy to see an alliance of a public health message and a tidying up of a very messy duty system allied with the large drinks businesses setting the duty in favour of their products at the expense of interesting stronger products from artisan producers or say Belgian beers which have always been much stronger than English beer.

How else can you read a statement. Thirdly, there has been much innovation in the drinks market that the duty system does not reflect. ‘Cocktails in a can’ please... such innovation!

Products of the same ABV, as far as practicable, should pay the same rate of duty, regardless of their origin sounds very reasonable but it is almost immediately followed by There should be a progressive structure of alcohol duty, so that lower ABV products pay proportionately less duty why? because "we want people to drink less".

Although there is a small plus for a few brewers The higher rate for beers above 7.5% ABV will be moved up to start at 8.5% ABV and aligned with the new rate for products above 8.5% ABV.

But cider goes to a %ABV rather than a flat rate, in other words The Bland Drinks Co. 4% cider, possibly with added Mango will pay less duty and Farmer Giles; scrumpy will pay more.

If you look at Lidl https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/lager-cider/woodgate-premium-west-country-vintage-cider/p24095 a half litre bottle of 7.3% cider for £1.19 in England and £1.83 in Scotland where Minimum Alcohol Pricing applies. Who in the industry is going complain about this price fixing as long as you can sell it to the public as a health message so that the media won't be interested?

Bye

Ian

 

[Drago]

Tim ‘The Gilet’ Martin will be rubbing his grubby hands together.

Hes too busy shooting burglars at his remote Norfolk farmhouse to waste time rubbing his hands together.

 

[mjr]

It is in the 200 page budget report. I'll save you the bother and copy and paste an extract.

"4.65 The government will invest over £5 billion in buses and cycling during this Parliament.
SR21 delivers a step change in investment, delivering the commitments in Bus Back Better and
Gear Change. This includes:
• over £3 billion of bus investment across the Parliament, including £1.2 billion new funding
for bus transformation deals to deliver London-style improvements in fares, services and
infrastructure. It also confirms a further £355 million of new funding for zero emission
buses, and an allocation of £70 million Zero Emission Bus funding to deliver buses and
related infrastructure in Warrington, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Kent, and Cambridgeshire
& Peterborough. This builds on significant zero emission and bus recovery funding, a
reformed Bus Service Operators Grant, and funding for new schemes through City Region
Settlements
• more than £2 billion of investment in cycling and walking over the Parliament, including
£710 million of new active travel funding at SR21. This funding will build hundreds of miles
of high quality, segregated cycle lanes, provide cycle training for every child and deliver an
e-bike support programme to make cycling more accessible."

I think perhaps the earlier report of £5bn local road and cycling fund is a misreport as im struggling to find mention of it in the budget report statement and is probably misinterpreted from this statement,

"Improving the quality of local transport links with:
•
an unprecedented investment package of £5.7 billion for eight English city regions to transform
local transport networks through London-style integrated settlements. This includes:
– £830 million to West Yorkshire for schemes such as the A61 improvements for buses, cyclists
and pedestrians between Leeds and Wakefield;
– £1 billion to Greater Manchester for schemes such as the next generation Metrolink tram-train
vehicles;
– £1 billion to the West Midlands for schemes such as completing the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill
metro extension and Sprint Phase 2;
– £710 million to Liverpool City Region for schemes such as battery power for new Merseyrail
trains to expand the reach of the existing network;
– £570 million to South Yorkshire for schemes such as starting the renewal of the Supertram;
– £310 million to the Tees Valley for schemes such as upgrading Middlesbrough and Darlington
stations and improving local rail links;
– £540 million to the West of England for schemes such as a fully prioritised bus route between
Bristol and Bath.
• investment in cycling, fulfilling the Prime Minister’s commitments to build hundreds of miles of
high-quality cycle lanes across England, provide bike training for every child, and a new e-bike
support programme."

I saw that but how does @dodgy know that "£710 million of new active travel funding at SR21" is not new funding?

 

[Chislenko]

Hes too busy shooting burglars at his remote Norfolk farmhouse to waste time rubbing his hands together.

To be fair he is launching 99p a pint on some beers throughout November at the majority of his centres / pubs.

 

[craigwend]

convincing sounding rapid rebuttal there, can I ask where you got your take on it from @craigwend ?

Not sure if this works? (below)
Had an interesting reaction /rebuttle & balance, bit of chat



View: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159293733921405&id=638866404

 

[dodgy]

I saw that but how does @dodgy know that "£710 million of new active travel funding at SR21" is not new funding?

Just something that I saw on Twitter, you now how hard it is to find that same tweet again after it's flown by. If I find something that backs it up, I'll post it here.

 

[Joffey]

Hes too busy shooting burglars at his remote Norfolk farmhouse to waste time rubbing his hands together.

And enjoying his retirement from time trialling...

 

[Joffey]

To be fair he is launching 99p a pint on some beers throughout November at the majority of his centres / pubs.

Might be 96p now

 

[Blue Hills]

I may well take part in that offer if cycling.
On my own particular wheels.

 

[Blue Hills]

Not sure if this works? (below)
Had an interesting reaction /rebuttle & balance, bit of chat



View: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159293733921405&id=638866404

sorry can't see - my duckduckgo blocks anything from facebook.

 

[T4tomo]

Not sure if this works? (below)
Had an interesting reaction /rebuttle & balance, bit of chat



View: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159293733921405&id=638866404

20l & 30l keykegs are very common for smaller craft breweries. there is a common tap system which they fit to, so this is a real issue, not just some knob on facebook.

 

[Drago]

On the plus side, I don't own a craft brewery...

 

[Dolorous Edd]

20l & 30l keykegs are very common for smaller craft breweries. there is a common tap system which they fit to, so this is a real issue, not just some knob on facebook.

From what I understand, it is an issue mainly for small producers of lager, who use those sizes, but not really an issue for small producers of real ale (which I am more familiar with), who mainly use 72 litre casks.

So is there an issue? Yes. Is the 40 litre limit specially designed by "the crooks in charge" to "help out their rich friends", as claimed by the Facebook poster? No, it's almost certainly an oversight by someone not familiar with the lager side of things. So that does rather lend credence to the "knob on facebook" theory.