Trade body calls for alcohol duty freeze as Scottish hospitality businesses 'need urgent help to survive'

Calls have been made for the UK Government to freeze alcohol duty in the upcoming Autumn Budget, as hospitality businesses need “urgent support to survive”.

Trade body UKHospitality has joined forces with the Scottish Whisky Association to urge the chancellor to “help to alleviate the pressures facing the hospitality supply chain” with a duty freeze.

“As we head towards the Budget, it’s clear that businesses across the supply chain need urgent support to survive,” the CEO of UKHospitality, Allen Simpson, said.

“We’ve seen swathes of job losses across the hospitality sector, which is the backbone of the UK’s economy and wider society. We know hospitality’s disproportionate tax burden impacts the entire sector, from pubs and bars to distillers and other producers.

“That’s why we’re supporting the Scotch Whisky industry’s call for a long-term duty freeze, which would help to alleviate some of the pressures facing the hospitality supply chain.”

The support for an alcohol duty freeze comes less than a month after UKHospitality revealed that almost half of all UK job losses since the last Budget were in hospitality.

Meanwhile the Scotch Whisky Association said the whisky industry alone has shed more than 1,000 jobs since the last Budget, amounting to 2.7% of all those directly employed by the sector.

The association said the alcohol duty, which has risen by 14% in two years, is largely to blame for industry cuts, combined with global impacts, including tariffs in the US market.

“Our businesses are facing pressure like never before,” Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association, said.

“The government pledged to support our industry, but distillers now face multiple barriers to doing business, making them uncompetitive and vulnerable to the impact of headwinds domestically and abroad.

“An excise duty freeze is in the chancellor’s gift to deliver – which would in turn give respite for businesses, and deliver Treasury revenue, which the government’s own figures show has flatlined since the first duty rise was confirmed.”

Mr Kent said hospitality is “crucial” for Scotch whisky producers.

He said the two sectors are “united” in their plea ahead of November’s budget.