The Death of the Pub

[Section_31]

THE traditional local pub is facing an "unprecedented threat" from soaring costs and stay-at-home drinkers, experts have warned, as a new report reveals beer sales in bars have fallen to their lowest level since the Great Depression.

Figures published today by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) reveal beer sales in UK pubs fell 10.6 per cent in the past year.

 

Some 107 million fewer pints were sold between April and June this year than in the same period last year – a fall of 1.2 million pints a day.

 

The news follows estimates that as many as 350 pubs have closed in Scotland in the past two years, and has brought predictions of the "death" of traditional pubs across the country.

 

Shrinking consumer demand as a result of the credit crunch and cheap alcohol in supermarkets, plus rising taxes and licence fees and the smoking ban, have all been blamed for the downturn in the pub trade.

 

Ian Brocklebank, a director of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), said the growing gap in the price of alcohol between pubs and supermarkets was driving an increasing number of publicans out of business.

 

"There's no doubt the threat faced by traditional pubs is unprecedented, and it's a threat we are taking very seriously indeed," said Mr Brocklebank.

 

"The big price differential between supermarkets and pubs is a massive problem. Supermarkets are able to sell alcohol at almost loss-leader prices – there's no way pubs can do that."

 

Camra is now lobbying Westminster to ease the financial burden on publicans to help them to tempt drinkers back.

 

"There are issues that we are raising with the government around beer tax and the possibility of making locally-brewed ales exempt from VAT," Mr Brocklebank said.

 

"There are several local campaigns to keep the traditional British pub, but what we are lacking is a national approach."

 

He said gloomy predictions of the death of the local pub were not wide of the mark.

 

"I think it's already happening for many rural communities," he said. "We are seeing the death of the traditional local in some places. When a community pub closes down, what do people end up with? A holiday home. What benefit do people get from that?"

 

His comments appear to be backed up by the figures. According to the BBPA, 27 pubs a week shut up shop last year. That is the equivalent of four a day and a rate of closure seven times faster than in 2006 and 14 times faster than 2005.

 

Figures from Camra, meanwhile, suggest that 57 pubs are closing every month. There are just over 57,000 pubs in Britain today, compared with 69,000 in 1980.

 

Charles Pease, the owner of the Kinloch Hotel on Mull, is threatening to relinquish his drinks licence because of soaring fees – meaning his locals could face a 24-mile round trip for a drink.

 

He says it will cost him thousands of pounds to meet licence costs and comply with the need for training courses and a premises plan under new licensing laws, a heavy burden for a small business.

 

The Scottish Government says the Licensing (Scotland) 2005 Act, which will be fully operational by autumn 2009, aims to address under-age drinking and binge drinking by introducing a detailed premises licence to existing establishments.

 

But Mr Pease said: "It is nothing more than a cash cow for local government and an ill-considered burden that, should recession and decline in trade be an issue, will find more than several small enterprises electing not to renew their licences in the coming months.

 

"The last time I renewed my licence for the Kinloch Hotel, it cost me £93 for three years. But the licence is going up from £31 a year to £220 a year, and in the first year there are additional costs, which mean the business would be paying something like £2,500 to £3,000."

 

Colin Wilkinson, secretary of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), said a multitude of factors were combining to turn the screw on pubs.

 

He said: "About 400 pubs have closed since the introduction of the smoking ban, but it's not just down to that. We have things like the rents, rates and fuel costs.

 

"But the main thing I would say is the price of alcohol in supermarkets. We have become a nation of take-home drinkers in Scotland, where we consume cheap alcohol from the big retailers. There are 759 supermarkets in Scotland, and they take 45 per cent of all alcohol sales in the country."

 

According to the BBPA, beer sales in supermarkets and shops are continuing to rise, with a 3.8 per cent increase compared with the same quarter last year.

 

Steve Mudie, president of the SLTA, added: "This is undoubtedly an extremely serious issue for the industry."

 

John Barclay, the secretary of Fife Licensed Trade Association, said he knew of a string of pubs that had closed in recent times.

 

"The price of beer in supermarkets is getting cheaper and cheaper. There's very little the pubs can do," he said.

 

Rob Hayward, the BBPA's chief executive, said: "Beer sales in pubs are now at their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s – down seven million pints a day from the height of the market in 1979.

 

"We need a change of approach from the government. Brewing is a major industry, beer our national drink and pubs a treasured part of our national culture.

 

"Yet with further duty increases planned, the Treasury continues to see the brewing industry as a cash cow to be milked in future budgets. These falling tax revenues show that it's time for a rethink."

 

 

People choosing to stay at home and drink more and more apparently, which is tragic as it kind of defeats the object of drinking IMO, it should be a social experience.

 

You kind of wonder how much this will already affect our declining social skills and ability to interact with each other over the longer term too, it's already a big issue, try asking a stranger for the time (especially anywhere south of Crewe) and they're likely to phone the police (using their bluetooth headset)

 

One day we won't even speak to each other, information will be conveyed straight from our brains to a text message.

[Plewggs]

All three pubs in my village closed in past five years.

 

The growing trend among local 20 somethings with children is to spend a Friday & Sat evening in one family’s home. Kids upstairs on the Platstation and I-Pod; parents downstairs with cans, bottles, ciggies and I-Pod.

 

All families visit each other’s homes on a rotating weekly basis and social skills are maintained.

 

It’s far cheaper for young families than pubbing & clubbing.

[Guest TK-421]

I don't know what Bottlebank is on about, there are loads of pubs and bars here in London.

 

And I like staying in and having a drink. I've started smoking again so it beats going to the pub, where they won't let me smoke.

[Thants]

Why pay to go to a pub when you can download one for free?

 

 

Theres a pub on pretty much every corner of Brighton. I only frequent about 60% of them though.

[Guest TK-421]

Anyone who campaigns for real ale can't be trusted.

[wiiksie]

Drinking at home is shit. Stop buying shit cheap booze, and get thee t'pub.

[Thants]

Anyone who campaigns for real ale can't be trusted.

 

WHAT??

[Guest TK-421]

WHAT??

 

Seriously. I bet he's fucking fat, has stupid lamb chop sideburns and wears a v-neck pullover with some sort of tartan on it.

[Remmie]

People choosing to stay at home and drink more and more apparently, which is tragic as it kind of defeats the object of drinking IMO, it should be a social experience.

 

You kind of wonder how much this will already affect our declining social skills and ability to interact with each other over the longer term too, it's already a big issue, try asking a stranger for the time (especially anywhere south of Crewe) and they're likely to phone the police (using their bluetooth headset)

 

One day we won't even speak to each other, information will be conveyed straight from our brains to a text message.

Horse shit.

[kopitegaz]

Both going to the pub and drinking at home (with family and/or friends) have their merits.

[wiiksie]

Horse shit.

Hook, line, sinker.

[gazelle]

My mum's pub went bankrupt - sad sad times...

[Thants]

My mum's pub went bankrupt - sad sad times...

 

Wasnt that in your dry period? mmmmm

[Cardie]

The Government can fuck off.

 

They don't like us staying in because of cheap booze and pubs closing so less tax then they tell us not to go out because binge drinking is on the increase.

[Monkeywool]

How come if the pub trade is dying, whenever I go to one it is still crammed like sardines, has music blaring out of the speakers like some sort of hellish disco so you can't even talk to anyone, and it takes you 20 minutes to get served, if you are lucky and don't happen to have a hen party join the crowd at the bar just before your turn and get served immediately with their 20 martinis and shit just because they are women.

 

Simply put, the pubs can blame it on whatever they want, but I imagine a a lot of people like me just don't like being packed so you can't move, in an unpleasant, hot and sticky atmosphere and being charged over £3 for a drink you can get from a supermarket for a third of the price.

[Section_31]

This is being treated as a relatively new thing but I personally think the nature of pubs has changed over the last decade or so and has led to people getting fed up with them.

 

There's only a handful of pubs I can think of now that are actually privately run and have what you'd call character, the others have all been snapped up by chains and are basically pub versions of McDonalds.

 

One pub round ours changed hands and is literally dead now, but all of its former punters followed the previous owner to his new place a few miles down the road. It's mad when you go in there and see literally ALL the same faces from the last place.

 

A good pub is about the people in it and the people who run it, not the size of its plasma screen.

 

Give me a landlord over a shift manager any day.

[RedBrian84]

There are indeed a lot of pub closures. Was in the Crown in Birkenhead t'other night with my old man and we were looking at the poster of the 'Wirral Hundred', and me dad was remarking on how many of them had closed in recent years.

 

There are a few things- the price of ale is always an issue, but then again, the price of ale has been increasing for many years. The smoking ban I think has also hit pubs hard- I myself am not a smoker and am in favour of the ban, but I can see why it's hitting pubs hard. The increase in tacky, samey 'pubs' (ie Wetherspoons) also hurts the regular pubs as well.

 

Having said that, there are still plenty of pubs to go to, and I'd definitly favour going out to the pub rather than stay in and drink. You only have to look at Liverpool to see the vast variety of drinking venues to sort all tastes. There is hope yet!

[gazelle]

Wasnt that in your dry period? mmmmm

 

thankfully one of the things that WASN'T my fault!

[Elmyn Noos]

Go back to the few threads we had on here about the smoking ban when it was introduced, and you will see Noos, amongst his many rants on the topic, predicting the death of the local boozer. Cheap supermarket beer is not the cause, it is the effect. People will drink one way or another, but because this nannying fucking government has once again imposed its "we know what's best for you" policies onto everyone, people are buying their booze from the supermarket and staying at home when they can enjoy a smoke and a few tinnies. Pubs in town are now full of metrosexual "my body is a temple" designer clothes-horses who sup a couple then fuck off home so they can be up in time for their morning workout without a hangover, and stupid fucking kids who get pissed on three pints then spill out to the taxi ranks for a fight.

 

Something like a third of all working mens clubs in the country are closed or closing, and all because the whiny minority insisted on removing the right of the landlord to offer smoking or non-smoking. I don't know a single person who has quit or reduced their smoke intake because of the smoking ban. I do know plenty who have quit or reduced their pub visits because of it.

 

We have killed the pub. The pub is dead.

[RedKnight]

Can't beat a nice country pub in the summer and I don't drink.

[melons]

People choosing to stay at home and drink more and more apparently, which is tragic as it kind of defeats the object of drinking IMO, it should be a social experience.

 

You kind of wonder how much this will already affect our declining social skills and ability to interact with each other over the longer term too, it's already a big issue, try asking a stranger for the time (especially anywhere south of Crewe) and they're likely to phone the police (using their bluetooth headset)

 

One day we won't even speak to each other, information will be conveyed straight from our brains to a text message.

 

I was in brum land the other week, i was lost. yes i still dont have sat nav, i pulled over to ask directions, the lad near on shat himself, he stopped, changed his direction slightly so he was further away from the car as he would of passed me, then when i did speak he took a step further back again...

 

All three pubs in my village closed in past five years.

 

The growing trend among local 20 somethings with children is to spend a Friday & Sat evening in one family’s home. Kids upstairs on the Platstation and I-Pod; parents downstairs with cans, bottles, ciggies and I-Pod.

 

All families visit each other’s homes on a rotating weekly basis and social skills are maintained.

 

It’s far cheaper for young families than pubbing & clubbing.

 

do the couples go home with the same partner they arrived with or is there some keys in the bowel thing? I can foresee a huge influx to the village if the latter is the case..

[Remmie]

There is no such thing as a shitty canalside pub. they are all most awesome, that's why narrow boat pub crawls are the shit.

 

I like 'Spoons, they have a wide range, no shit music playing at 20,000 decibels and are cheaper then the average bear.

[Monkeywool]

There is no such thing as a shitty canalside pub. they are all most awesome, that's why narrow boat pub crawls are the shit.

 

I like 'Spoons, they have a wide range, no shit music playing at 20,000 decibels and are cheaper then the average bear.

 

Of course, 'Spoons is ok if you like being trapped for an hour at the bar waiting to be served, then have the risk of some chav bottling you with a Smirnoff Ice bottle just for looking at his bird.

 

Canalside pubs I agree are the bollocks.

[calvoboy]

Lots of pubs near me close because the breweries screw the tenants. As soon as they start making serious money through their own efforts, the brewery hikes up the rent. The brewery trebled the rent on the landlord of my in-law's local, after he'd invested money in a refurb and turned it into a great pub. It's now got a manager in and is going downhill fast.

 

No other business would be allowed to control the price and distribution of their own product to this extent, as it is anti-competitive. The government should ban breweries from owning pubs, making every pub in the country a free house. You'd get much more competition amongst breweries, less barriers to entry for smaller independent breweries, better quality beer, better selections of drinks in each pub and cheaper prices.

 

It would need to be announced and phased in over time, and there would have to be some provision to prevent housing development on pub sites, so that the pubs remain as pubs once they are sold, but it could really solve the problem of pub closures in rural areas.

[RJ Fan club]

Can't beat a nice country pub in the summer and I don't drink.

 

I thought you went into wine bars.