According to a report released today, the Campaign for Real Ale in the UK has revealed that over the past 45 years around 25,000 pubs have closed – the main locations for the country’s AWP machines.
Source: User:Fintan264
Today only 50,000 remain, the report said and it forecasts that business tax rates will kill off many more.
The sector, said Camra, is “facing a ticking time bomb” over its future and the new business rates introduced earlier this year are forcing pubs to accept “eye-watering” tax increases. It listed one well-known pub, The Baum, in Rochdale, England, its Pub of the Year in 2012, as facing an increase in taxes of 377 per cent.
The government, in response, said: “The great British pub is a national treasure and we’re backing communities that want to protect and run their local pubs. We’ve already provided more than 9,000 small pubs with a £1,000 discount on their businesses rates bill as part of our £435m package of support for businesses.”
