Ribble Valley Conservatives welcomed the government minister Grant Schapp's initiative calling for Labour to apologise for all the community pubs that closed thanks to the Labour Government’s policies. Official figures show there was a net closure of 3,530 pubs across England under Labour from 1997 to 2010.This included a number in the Ribble Valley and large numbers across Lancashire. Ken Hind Senior Vice Chairman on behalf of Ribble Valley Conservatives stated '' We support Grant Schapps call welcome changes proposed by the new government . "The new Coalition Government will give local residents a community right to buy to save local pubs, will stop unfair selling by supermarkets and is cutting red tape on live music in pubs.'' "Pub landlords don't want state handouts but a level playing field and less government regulation getting in the way." "Labour hiked taxes on pubs and did nothing to stop unfair loss-leading by supermarkets" "They only people they helped were the yobs who benefited from the 24 hour licensing laws which fuelled a surge in binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets. We support the demand for Labour to apologise for the harm they did to community pubs across the country." Grant Schapp's Minister for Local Government. commented :''the new Government is doing its best to defend local pubs: - Through the Localism Bill, to be introduced in November, the Government will allow communities to bid to take on local assets and facilities, including community pubs, where they are up for sale.
- Expert advice is being given available to communities seeking to take over their local pub through the Government-funded Asset Transfer Unit.
- More help will be given to firms to help them with business rates: making small business rate relief automatic; introducing a more generous small business rate relief scheme for a year from October; and giving councils powers to levy discretionary business rate discounts – which could, for example, be used to support local pubs.
- There will be a ban the sale of alcohol below cost price, helping protect local pubs from unfair ‘loss leading’ by some supermarkets.
- The Government is reforming licensing rules to make it easier to play live music in local pubs.
- The new Government has already scrapped the planned 10% rise in cider duties - the so-called "cider tax".
Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley MP is the Honorary President of the Parliamentary All Party Beer Group and co-chaired the groups ''Community pub enquiry'' which looked at the reasons for the closure of public houses and ways keeping them open commented “Community pubs are the heartbeat of our villages and towns and a British institution. They have suffered very badly over the last few years because a variety of factors including supermarkets loss leading, the smoking ban and the rateable value of the property. “I sincerely hope that community pubs are given the support that they deserve, need and that is practical. It would be a great shame to see more pubs closing across the Ribble Valley when there are ways to stop that happening. The All Party Beer Group has long been advocating for the right changes to be made and I hope that landlords and breweries reap the benefits.” |