The founder of pub giant JD Wetherspoon claims ‘tax disparity’ in favour of supermarkets is harming the ‘social fabric of the nation’
Pubs pay about 20 times more business rates per pint than supermarkets, the boss of Wetherspoons has declared.
Founder Tim Martin claimed the tax can account for 28p of the average £5 pint of beer in pubs. That compares to around 1.5p for the equivalent in supermarkets which, he said, where able to sell beer much cheaper because of lower overheads.
One reason grocers can sell beer for less, Mr Martin claimed, was that they do not pay VAT on food sales, whereas pubs pay at the standard rate of 20%. It was enabling supermarkets, in effect, to subsidise the selling price of beer, wine and spirits, he said.
The “perverse” set-up, he said, has seen pubs lose approximately 50% of their beer trade to supermarkets since 2000.
Mr Martin said: “This tax disparity is harming businesses and high streets, but also the social fabric of the nation – where, other than pubs, can you temporarily escape the attentions of your own family?”
His intervention comes as the Mirror has highlighted the plight of the nation’s watering holes through its Your Pub Needs You campaign.
Pub and brewing giant Greene King set out proposals this summer for business rates to be overhauled so that they are based on profits. It comes as the government has vowed to reform the system.
Mr Martin said in response: “We are sure that Greene King’s heart is in the right place, especially since they brew the sainted Abbot Ale, but feel they’ve wandered off course, perhaps after a heavy session, by recommending a profits-based analysis.”
The Mirror’s Your Pub Needs You campaign is calling for a Government fighting fund for pubs, recognition for pubs going above and beyond for their community, and support for community groups wanting to buy their local.
Figures show nearly five pubs were lost for good across Britain every week in the first half of this year, with more than 600 standing empty long term.
It takes the number of pubs that have closed since 2016 to almost 5,000, according to data from the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).
Wetherspoons is bucking the trend by confirming plans to open around 30 pubs over the next year, its biggest expansion for a decade. It follows a lean period for the chain, and wider sector, with many sites having to close due to cost pressures and changing customer habits.
Wetherspoons has 794 pubs, after opening three in the past year and selling nine – down from 955 in 2015. During its biggest expansion in 1997, it opened 100 in a year.