NICK HERBERT: Protection needed for important social hubs

If you buy a pint of beer in a pub for, say, Â£4, a staggering 67p of the cost is VAT, 49p is alcohol duty, 15p is other taxes, and 15p is business rates.

Governments have to raise money to pay for public services somehow, but there’s some evidence that cutting beer duty helps to boost pubs and in turn the local economy and revenues.

An escalator introduced by the Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling, in 2008 increased beer duty automatically by two per cent above inflation each year. Tax on beer rose by over 40 per cent, more than 7,000 pubs closed and 58,000 jobs in the beer and pub industry were lost.

So I’ve backed cuts in alcohol duties to support our pubs, and four years ago the Government removed the escalator, cutting or freezing duties from then on.

But business rates are also an overhead, and I’ve become increasingly concerned that some local pubs, along with some other businesses, are facing huge business rates increases as a result of the recent revaluation.