In a regular series for WB Online, the CAMRA Campaigns Team share the work that has been going on across Westminster, the devolved parliaments and local government to campaign in support of consumers, pubs, clubs, cider and perry.    

In our last update we reflected on how we were heading into the summer parliamentary recess, but there were still plenty of things to keep us busy during the downtime.  

Within a couple of weeks, the prime minister (PM) had announced his intention to resign, the trickle of stories about the energy bill crisis facing the hospitality sector turned into a flood, and news of a delay to the Alcohol Duty Review was announced.  

Here’s a roundup of everything we have been doing to campaign for consumers and the licensed trade during this uncertain Summer.  

 

CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP CONTEST 

We wrote to both candidates asking them about their policy positions on various support for pubs, social clubs, brewers, and cider makers.  

Our press release, including text of the letters, is here: This round's on us - Conservative leadership contenders invited down to their local to talk about the future of the UK’s pubs - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

Now a winner has been announced, we will write to newly appointed ministers to seek introductory meetings and set out our main policy asks for their departments.  

 

WESTMINSTER 

Autumn Budget and/or an emergency fiscal event

We are now planning for an Autumn Budget and for the possibility of an emergency fiscal event after the new prime minister is announced. 

Our main policy asks for either fiscal event will be:  

– implementation of the Alcohol Duty Review reforms as quickly as possible, with the draught duty container size threshold reduced to 20L.

– an energy bill price cap for hospitality businesses 

– a cut in VAT for on trade food and alcohol 

– proper reform of the business rates system to remove the current unfair burden on pubs. 

 The team is planning e-lobbying for members and putting together materials to help branches rally support.  

Alcohol Duty Review

When the PM stated his intention to resign, we were waiting for an announcement on the next stage of the review. We were expecting another consultation to follow that update to allow for enabling legislation around the time of the Autumn Budget, with implementation to take place in early 2023.    

The caretaker government that was in place at the time agreed not to make any new policy decisions and only continue to implement decisions made by ministers before the PM’s resignation announcement.  

Unfortunately, the caretaker government considered the next stages of the Alcohol Duty Review to require new policy decisions, therefore no further announcements were going to be made until a new government was in place. This means there will likely be a delay to the final implementation of the review, but we do not know for how long, and much will depend on the new PM’s’ priorities and those of the Treasury ministers.  

This was confirmed via a written ministerial statement shortly before recess. We issued a comment in reaction here: New system of alcohol taxation needed as quickly as possible to give pubs and breweries a boost: CAMRA - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale  

Backbench debate on the Alcohol Duty Review

A backbench business debate was held in the Commons on 7 July. We distributed briefings to MPs, encouraged branches to ask MPs to attend, live tweeted the proceedings and have thanked MPs that spoke in support. There was broad support for changing the draught duty container threshold, which was confirmed as being under consideration by the minister who responded.   

CAMRA was mentioned a few times, including our research on how the 40L proposed container threshold would exclude some pubs from benefitting.   

Energy and cost-of-living crisis

This is a major issue facing pubs and clubs right now. We have been in contact with Northamptonshire branch, where one of the earliest local examples to receive national media coverage arose, and worked with it to write to its MP, which was the subject of a national press release.  

You can read the press release and letter here: https://camra.org.uk/press_release/northants-campaigners-demand-help-with-energy-bills-to-save-the-great-british-local/   

We have converted the letter and press release into templates for local use and issued a campaign pack for branches which you can read here (CAMRA login required): Branch campaigning toolkits - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

Northamptonshire branch received a reply from its MP, along with a response from the energy minister, Greg Hands, detailing existing government support for pubs.  

As the measures mentioned pre-date the current cost of energy crisis, we will be responding asking for specific support, and are collecting case studies from across the UK to assist – there is a shoutout on the central CAMRA social media accounts here and here.  

The cost-of-living crisis and its effect on the licensed trade was also a key theme in our Great British Beer Festival media work.  

We used YouGov data on the affordability of a pint to repeat calls for help with energy bills, a VAT cut, changes to the Pubs Code, and the swift implementation of the new draught duty rate applying to 20L containers and above: CAMRA renews calls for Government support as new research shows over half of people think the average price of a pint is now unaffordable - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

We have also written, along with SIBA, to the chancellor to highlight the threat to brewers, and repeating calls for assistance with energy bills. You can read the press release and letter here: Call for urgent support on energy bills for independent brewers - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

Minimum juice content of cider

Following some very promising results from the cider questions in CAMRA’s annual YouGov survey, we released the first tranche of results as part of the Great British Beer Festival media work highlighting calls for an increase in the minimum juice content of cider for tax purposes.  

You can see the Great British Beer Festival press release here: Consumers back changes to legal definition of cider to help save orchards - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Ellie met with civil servants at BEIS for an informal discussion about our submission and key policy asks for the Pubs Code Review.  

We also made a formal submission to the review, which included data collected directly from tied tenants. We promoted our tied tenant survey heavily on social media and in trade press. Our press release announcing the launch of the survey is here: CAMRA urges the Government to put tied tenants’ views front and centre of Pubs Code Review - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale 

Now that our formal response has been submitted, we will be issuing a press release with our submission, headline asks for reforms, and highlights from the survey data. You can read the submission here: https://www1-camra.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/19090351/CAMRA-submission-to-the-second-statutory-review-of-the-Pubs-Code-and-Adjudicator-FINAL.pdf  

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)

Paul Ainsworth, CAMRA National Planning Policy Advisory, worked with Nottingham branch and Alex Norris MP to submit an amendment to the draft Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill. This centred around publishing the results of the review into Assets of Community Value that the department undertook some years ago. The amendment was withdrawn after debate at committee, but the government respondent present did reply that the review would be revisited as part of an upcoming white paper on community assets.  

All-Party Parliamentary Pub Group – secretariat provided by CAMRA 

The Pubs APPG has made a submission to the Pubs Code Review, reiterating the findings of its inquiry into the impact of the pandemic on pubs, and calling for a range of other improvements to primary legislation.  

The Parliamentary Pub of the Year award will be relaunched shortly, which offers MPs the opportunity to nominate pubs in their constituencies for a variety of awards.  

Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales consultation

We submitted a short response to the government consultation on choice of units of measurement.  

We used the opportunity to call for:

– a pint to be defined as 100 per cent liquid  

– the return of the requirement to prominently display price lists at the point of sale  

– full ingredient, additive and provenance information on labels.  

You can read our submission here: https://www1-camra.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/26094945/LETTER-CAMRA-response-to-choice-on-units-of-measurement-markings-and-sales-consultation-August-2022.pdf  

Labour policy announcement on Assets of Community Value

We responded to the recent announcement from the shadow secretary of state for Levelling Up, Lisa Nandy, that a future Labour government would introduce a community right to buy for community assets in England. Our release is here: Community Right to Buy could be gamechanger for saving local pubs: CAMRA - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale  

Adjournment debate of Small Brewers’ Relief

Owen Thompson MP (SNP, Midlothian) has secured an adjournment debate on Small Brewers’ Relief on 6 September. We prepared a briefing and sent it to key MPs that have been supportive on issues affecting small brewers.  

Early Day Motion (EDM) on upwards only rent reviews for pub tenants

John Cryer MP (Lab, Leyton and Wanstead) has tabled an EDM on the use of upwards only rent reviews for pub tenants. We have been in touch with the local and all branches to make them aware of the EDM in case they wanted to ask their MPs to sign it.    

Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill

The government has given its backing to the Employment (Allocation of Tips Bill), a Private Members' Bill introduced by Dean Russell MP (Con, Watford). As it now has government backing, it is expected to become law, which will mean that companies will not be able to remove tips from workers.   

 We issued a press release welcoming this development – that release is here CAMRA backs law change to make sure bar staff always keep their tips - CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale  

 

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT 

Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs – secretariat service provided in part by CAMRA 

The Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs in the Scottish parliament is meeting with environment minister Lorna Slater in October to discuss the impact of the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme on consumer choice and small businesses. This follows a short inquiry by the group into the impact of the scheme on brewers and pubs.  

Planning

We recently submitted our formal response to the Scottish government’s consultation on changing permitted development rights where we argued: 

– against relaxing change of use protections for pubs in town centres 

– in favour of making it easier for pubs to make use of outside space 

– that the Scottish government should close the loophole allowing demolition of a freestanding pub without planning permission. 

An e-lobby campaign of MSPs is being planned for the near future, urging them to support our ask of closing the planning loophole on the demolition of pubs without planning permission.  

Scottish Pubs Code

We submitted our formal response to the Stage 2 consultation on the forthcoming statutory Scottish Pubs Code and are awaiting a formal response from the Scottish government.  

The Scottish government has published a summary of the responses here: Scottish Pubs Code Consultation 2: analysis report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and individual responses to the consultation here: Published responses for Tied Pubs - Scottish Pubs Code - part 2 - Scottish Government - Citizen Space (consult.gov.scot) 

The minister has formally announced that the implementation of the Tied Pubs (Scotland) Act has been pushed back from autumn 2022 to May 2023. This has been put down to awaiting the outcome of a judicial review of the act. 

  

SENEDD CYMRU 

Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs – secretariat service provided in part by CAMRA 

The first event of the relaunched Cross-Party Group on Beer and Pubs is taking place in October, and it is planning to hold an inquiry into the Welsh government’s proposals for a deposit return scheme.  

Local Government Committee Inquiry into community assets

We made a submission to the Welsh Parliament’s Local Government Committee which is undertaking an inquiry into community assets.  

It subsequently invited us to give oral evidence to the committee. Tom Stainer (CAMRA chief executive) gave evidence about pubs as community assets and made the case for updating planning laws to better protect pubs, introducing dedicated support and finance for community groups in Wales looking to take over their pub, and introducing a community right to buy to give local people first refusal on purchasing community assets.  

Planning

An e-lobby campaign of MSs is being planned for the near future, them to support our ask of reforming the planning system to offer better protections for pubs.   

 

NORTHERN IRELAND ASSMEBLY 

 Licensing law reform

The Licensing Act 2021 required the Northern Ireland Department for Communities to appoint an independent person/body to conduct a two-year review of NI’s licensing system including looking at options to reform or abolish the surrender principle. 

The Department for Communities have appointed the University of Stirling to be the independent reviewer. We are asking for a rethink on this decision, as the university was a stakeholder in the process of reforming licencing laws. During this process it stated that the surrender principle must be retained, shouldn’t be abolished and was a preferable system to the rest of the UK’s licensing regimes. 

Several MLAs have been contacted and are raising the issue with the communities minister. 

 

POLITICAL PARTY CONFERENCES 

We have bene busy planning for our joint receptions at Labour and Conservative Party conferences with the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.  

 

GREAT BRITISH BEER FESTIVAL 

We hosted various parliamentarians at the festival. Mike Wood MP, Nigel Evans MP and Charlotte Nichols MP took part in the Homebrew Competition judging, and Craig Williams MP, Claire Coutinho MP and Lord Roy Kennedy attended the trade session.   

We also printed fliers for the trade session advertising our tied tenant survey.  

 

That’s all for this PUBlic Affairs round up – we’ll be back to let you know about the latest government-facing campaigning taking place across the UK.  

As always, if any CAMRA member wants campaigning advice, or has questions about what we are up to, the Campaigns Team is here to help – just email campaigns@camra.org.uk 

Ellie Hudspith, Paul Edgeworth and Cam Weddell – the CAMRA Campaigns Team