Rachel Reeves considers raising alcohol duty in Budget

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/20/rachel-reeves-considers-raising-alcohol-duty-budget/

Posted by boycecodd

22 Comments

  1. Minimum-Geologist-58 on

    If true what I do like about Labour is their willingness to call interest groups’ bluff.

    Private schools: “so you’ll happily raise your fees 17% in a year but a 20% tax increase will see an exodus of pupils?”

    Pubs: “so you raised prices 75% during COVID and never put them back down but 2p on a pint will make your entire business model uneconomical?”

  2. After-Dentist-2480 on

    The sensible move would be to raise alcohol duty on off-sales in supermarkets and off licences, but leave it alone in pubs.

  3. iamnosuperman123 on

    What a fucking stupid idea. Oh looks the pub and restaurant sector is on its knees…let’s make it even harder for them

  4. Another Telegraph story about things that haven’t happened, to stir people up.

    Mods, can we start removing these as not news and just opinion pieces? It’s just made up stuff phrased as a news article, when it has no evidence at all on the story to justify the claims.

  5. Literally anything and everything to avoid taxing millionaires and billionaires and wealth, cant wait for a VAT hike next.

  6. Do, only boomers afford to be drinking these days anyway, about time they gave back to society

  7. Yeah, let’s cripple the hospitality industry even more. It’s not like there are energy suppliers that have been reporting record profits while repeatedly putting their prices up that should be facing a windfall tax on those profits.

  8. Ok-Inevitable-3038 on

    No objections, but bars are dead, people are already avoiding pints because they’re so expensive (I mean, that is a GOOD thing) but pints > £7 a pint people just won’t drink

  9. Maybe they could look at minimum unit pricing.

    This will get revenue from shops – while leaving pubs/ restaurants alone.

    It could also be argued that it is a targeted tax to try and improve the nations health – to nudge people towards less harmful consumption.

    Of course – Labour and their supporters have spent the last few years screaming hysterically at the Scottish MUP system – so they would be incredibly hypocritical to do it. So more likely a blunt alcohol duty rate rise which will damage economy without raising much revenue. That seems to be the Labour speciality.

  10. This is the Labour that were definitely not going to increase the tax burden on ordinary people! You know, those “hard working families” who were already struggling to afford a car to get to work, heat the house and have the occasional night out.

    Watch the next budget. Fuel duty. Up!
    Pay per mile. You live in a rural area therefore you must be rich. Cough up!
    Action on domestic fuel. Do nothing!
    Alcohol duty. Up!

    Go home and sit in a duvet peasants!
    If you can still afford a home that is.

  11. Someone needs to go get the small violin out for the pubs that have always been one significant missed payment away from going under.

    Ya just can’t charge £6 (minimum) per pint and serve average luke-warm food pretending like it’s restaurant-quality with shit table service and expect people to keep coming back.

  12. After she is done with this budget will be the richest government in history with the poorest population.

  13. Potential_Cover1206 on

    All this says is this incompetent chancellor hasn’t a single clue as to what to do, so sticks to the utterly failed orthodoxy. FFs !!

    Governments have been raising taxes by ommission or commission since 1997 and managed the square root of fuck all. Governments have been cutting expenditure haphazardly for the same length of time and achieved the square root of fuck all.

    Is there not a single clown with an original thought anywhere ?

  14. Increase taxes on off licences which sell the cheap alcohol. Some of them make a killing on the cheap booze.

  15. She should raise a tax on gifts given to members of parliament , that would probally wipe out the deficit

  16. Ah yes, further destroy hospitality whilst ignoring the elephant in the room for practically free revenue – recreational legalisation and regulated selling of cannabis. I’m a non smoker, but seems like a no brainer to me, seeing as it’s de facto decriminalised already – with most police forces unwilling to take action against basic possession unless absolutely necessary.

  17. Great.. so the likes of Heineken and Carlsberg will just keep lowering the abv of their alcohol and keep charging the same amount, and the only ones who suffer are the consumer and the pub.

  18. Legalise weed instead, create new jobs and bring in billions instead of continuing to try and kill pubs.

    They should also start charging for any kind of alcohol incident that results in taking up NHS time.

    I remember working in a hospital for a few years and police would always bring drunks into A&E even without injuries and just ditch them on us because they couldn’t be bothered to deal with them so that needs sorting out as well

  19. Kitchen-Plant664 on

    Fuck right off!! If anything it needs to be lowered so we can claim our pubs back. We’re losing social spaces.