Tories Raise Alarm On "Tax Bombshell For Community Pubs". Or Do They?

Grant Shapps, Shadow Housing Minister, is today wheeled out on the Tories' website to reveal that Conservative research has revealed a triple-whammy of new taxes aimed at milking community pubs.

"Gordon Brown has pushed local community pubs to the wall", Shapps said, pointing out that at the same time Labour has ignored "the binge-drinking dens that have wrecked our town centres and fuelled violent crime".

But are his revelations new?

The BBPA issued a response to plans to levy new charges on pubs with 'skills with prizes' (SWP) machines, which HMRC want to reclassify as gambling machines, in the middle of February. Read it here.

The other two parts of the triple-whammy relate to the Business Rates Review, which is due to take effect this year, and are based on an omission in the guidance manual for Valuation Office officials which, the Tories claim, will compel them to assess popularity or friendliness and factor this into the rateable value. An unfavourable assessment would see sharp increases in rates, leading to further pub closures.

Despite the claim that this has been brought to light by Tory research, a quick Google search revealed a similar story reported in the London Evening Standard's website in October 2007. At that time, Eric Pickles was wheeled out to put the Tories' case. Of course, at that time we weren't all living in shit-strewn 'Binge-drinking Britain', so the argument was that landlords would stop these activities rather than have to face a tax on them. Now, though, with Shapps laying the blame for binge-drinking and drink-fuelled voilent crime at Gordon Brown's door, it seems pubs are now making their entrance into the pre-election squabbling.

I wonder if Shapps is out front on this because he shadows John Healey. I'll be watching the wires tomorrow for a rebuttal from our Minister For Pubs...

Minister For Pubs Spotted "In The Pub"

...according to the Morning Advertiser.

Meanwhile, his Parliamentary colleagues were debating pubs and the tie, and asking why the Minister for Pubs was absent from the debate. He was in the pub. Duh!

At last, a government minister sticking closely to his brief. Restores your faith in politics, doesn't it?

Watch Out For Falling Pianos!

Sunday 7 Feb 2010: Government announces appointment of a Minister for Pubs. Housing Minister John Healey, apparently a pub fan, will work across portfolios and report at Cabinet level. He will lead a task force of 5 ministers.
Monday 8 Feb 2010: Healey confirms his new role will be in addition to his Housing role at DCLG, and says he aims to bring proposals forward within a few weeks. These could include a plea to HM Treasury to postpone any additional duty rise on beer, and a look at planning laws to make it harder to apply for change of use or demolish when a pub closes.

Thursday 11 Feb 2010: A Housing Minister sparks fury by remarking during a Radio 5 Live interview that, in some cases, repossession of the family home can be the "best thing". Guess which minister opened his mouth and inserted his foot..? Yep. Homeowners and political opponents call for an apology and his resignation.

This gaff-prone administration don't seem to be able to get anything right.

Now, A Minister For Pubs

The nation's weekend paper of record (the News Of The World) reports that Gordon Brown has appointed his former PPS and current Housing Minister at DCLG, John Healey MP, as his 'Minister for Pubs'.

In this role, Healey will head up a task force of five ministers to tackle the problems of pub closures. His group will meet for the first time tomorrow to scope out an initial pub survival blueprint, which might include business tax breaks, relaxation of planning laws and a right for tenants to buy out closure-threatened houses from "big breweries", though I'd expect pubcos to be included as well. We're informed that he expects to be pressured to prevent 'Badger' Darling from lumping more tax on beer in the next budget (assuming Badger will be delivering it).

Healey descibes himself as a 'beer man', though there's nothing on his personal website about this passion, and he isn't on the All-Parliamentary Beer Group as far as I can tell.

It'll be interesting to see how his brief is remitted. He will sit in Cabinet, for what that's worth, but will be be able to press the Treasury on beer duty? Will he be able to prevent misuse of restrictive covenants when pubs are put on the market? Where will he stand on alcohol misuse and harm reduction initiatives coming out of the Home Office?

He's apparently planning to hold a meeting of his Task Force in a pub, which smells of a PR stunt to me. The government's track record on sleight-of-hand initiatives and dead-end gimmicks is well enough known to wonder "why now". However, the next few days and weeks could be interesting...