Alcohol duty raise "unfair", says North East Lincolnshire pub owner
Tax increases could see a bottle of wine cost up to 20% more as the freeze on alcohol duty comes to an end.
Alcohol duty will rise by 10.8% to match inflation, affecting the prices of a range of drinks. The government will now base the alcohol tax on the strength of the drink, meaning a higher price for wine and spirits.
At the same time, the duty paid for draught pints in pubs will come down by 11p a pint, in a bid to help pubs in what the government calls its "Brexit Pubs Guarantee."
Nathan Taylor owns Cleethorpes Taphouse and Kitchen, which relies on the sale of bottles of wine with meals. He argues that the tax changes will make an already difficult picture even harder in hospitality.
He said: "It's unfair on the hospitality industry. It's a tough business at the minute, and this is not going to help the business in any way shape or form, or the industry for that matter.
"It's very hard to stomach such rises at the minute when we've suffered a significant increase in energy bills."
The increase in alcohol duty does not necessarily mean a price rise for the consumer, but it is expected that in most cases, businesses will not be able to take a cut in their profits to keep prices the same.
Nathan Taylor said: "That cost will be 100% passed on to the consumer, if they want to have a 13% bottle of wine they are going to have to absorb that cost."
"We can't absorb any of the costs, there is nothing left in the pot to absorb the increase. We've absorbed rising costs as it is, and people are reluctant to pay what we believe is a fair price to pay."
He added that in pubs that do rely on pint sales, there's no guarantee that consumers will feel the benefit of the 11p duty reduction, as many of them will need that money to stay afloat and pay off debts.