The average pint of lager in pubs is 80p more expensive than is justified by inflation and like-for-like changes in taxes since 1987, a new study has claimed.
The GMB union, which produced the research, blamed the rising cost of pub rents for increased beer prices and warned it was forcing pubs that had survived the 1930s recession and the Blitz to close.
The study also claimed that ale was 65p per pint more expensive than could be accounted for by inflation and like-for-like tax changes.
According to data from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, the average price for a pint of lager in 2011 is £3.09. The GMB said this was 91p higher than the £2.18 it would have been now had pub lager prices moved in line with inflation.
Meanwhile, RPI data shows that the average price for a pint of ale in 2011 is £2.70. This is 75p higher than the £1.95 it would have been now had it moved in line with inflation.
On top of inflation, there have been two increases in the rate of VAT since 1987, from 15% to 20%. Since 1987 excise duty on standard lager and ale has also increased in real terms by 2p per pint faster than inflation. The additional taxes per pint, over and above keeping pace with the rate of inflation for both retail prices and taxes, are 11p per pint for lager and 10p per pint of ale.
Paul Maloney, GMB National Officer for tied pub tenants, said: "The Beer Orders were introduced in 1989. The aim was to foster competition to increase consumer choice and bring down prices.
"The opposite of this aim is what has been achieved. Prices are between 80p and £1 per pint higher than justified by inflation and changes in taxes in pubs where property companies replaced brewers as owners. Across the board the average price for a pint of lager in Britain has risen by 80p higher than inflation and changes in taxes.
"Local pubs owned by property companies have been priced out of the market and widespread pub closures have resulted, particularly in working-class areas in Britain."
Maloney, who last year attempted to drum up support for industrial action by pub licensees, also appeared to acknowledge that such action was unlikely to take place in the pub industry: "The interests of the tied tenants as directed workers currently appear too disparate for them to unite to take lawful action to stop the decline in the pub trade as the ongoing recession in consumer spending makes things worse for them. Tenants fear the power of the pubcos. Tenants are also subject to a diet of partisan and biased views from opinion-formers in the industry," he said.
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By Neil Gerrard
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