08 Dec 2023
It’s a traditional part of the festive routine, popping into a local pub for a quick drink while out shopping, enjoying a pre-mayhem tipple on Christmas Eve, or grabbing a pint ahead of lunch on the big day.
But as campaign group Save St Albans Pubs is keen to stress: ‘A pub is for life, not just for Christmas’.
The group, which strives to support licenced premises across the city centre and beyond in the face of ongoing challenges, has made the message part of its Christmas campaign this year.
Spokesperson Sean Hughes, who runs The Boot and Dylans, said they wanted to remind people in St Albans that pubs are still facing exceptionally high costs to run and that local establishments will need their continued support in 2024 – especially through the winter months when heating bills are high.
“We will continue to campaign to ensure pubs like The Rose and Crown reopen and we do not see a further decline in pub stocks across the district because as we have said time and time again, once a pub is gone, it is gone forever. Pubs are community spaces and offer vital warm social spaces over the winter to the elderly and lonely as well as people wanting to get together. The pub is about our local community and it is entwined in our long history as a city offering warm welcomes to visitors for hundreds of years.
“Our campaign is now UK-wide and we will continue to push for business rates reform on pubs which unfairly targets areas with higher property value like St Albans and big cities. Pubs pay almost triple the rates of restaurants in St Albans and this is not fair.
“Taxes on pubs in general are far too high and the long overdue ’levelling up’ between pubs and supermarkets needs to begin. The UK has one of the highest taxes on alcohol in Europe.
“We want to see a new five per cent VAT rate for hospitality in return for increased training and investment into buildings with the VAT cut being paid for by a new increased levy on alcohol sales in supermarkets.
“This is particularly urgent following the insane prices increase we have seen this year with food costs doubling, energy costs tripling and wages increasing by at least 10 per cent. The price of a pint has never been so high…
“We work very closely with our MP Daisy Cooper plus other parliamentary groups to get this message through and we would like to thank Daisy for her relentless hard work in challenging the burden of business rates to pubs.
“We are very lucky that St Albans pubs are so well supported by residents of St Albans as well as visitors and we would like to thank everyone for their support and wish them all a very Happy Christmas.”
