Actress calls for beer duty cut to save pubs

ACTRESS JODIE Kidd will deliver a 105,000-name petition to the Government today as part of a campaign to save pubs from closing.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is being urged to cut beer duty in his Budget on October 29 as closures continue to hit high streets across the country.

Ms Kidd, inset, who has bought The Half Moon in Kirdford, West Sussex, will go to 10 Downing Street, to hand in the petition, which calls for beer duty to be reduced.

She said: “Local pubs like my own bring people together and are at the heart of communities. However, mounting financial pressures mean that for many it is already a struggle just to keep their doors open.” The petition has been organised by the Long Live The Local campaign, whose programme director David Cunningham said: “Our pubs and brewers not only support nearly 900,000 jobs, account for £11.1bn in wages and pay £13bn in taxes, but they are also vital for our high streets and highly valued by communities. “Despite this, beer duty in the UK is already taxed at three times the EU average and 12 times higher than in Germany and Spain. “If the Chancellor raises beer duty in line with RPI inflation as planned, the result could be catastrophic. Based on current closure rates, we estimate that within five years more than one in 10 pubs in the UK could close for good, costing thousands of jobs.”