In exactly 3 weeks Rachel Reeves will deliver a first Labour Government Budget in 14 years. While the British drinks industry might not be top of her list Wine and Spirit Trade Association campaigning has been building momentum - steadily over the summer and fast in the last month.
What does the UK wine and spirit industry want?
🛑 Keep the ‘wine easement’: to avoid the red tape costs and supply chain chaos for UK businesses – especially SMEs – of completing the Sunak alcohol tax reforms. Moving from 1 duty payment to 30 different ones for the vast majority (85%) of wines on UK shelves on 1 February next year would be disastrous. The Finance Bill following the Budget is the LAST CHANCE to make the small legislative change necessary to keep the easement.
🧊 Freeze alcohol duty for at least 2 years: Support businesses, consumers and (yes, really) to generate MORE revenue to the Exchequer to help mend the public finances. In the first full year of the new alcohol duty system (September 23 to August 24) year-on-year alcohol duty receipts to the Exchequer FELL by £1.3 billion.
❌ Abolish duty stamps: Follow through on this existing commitment and legislate. Duty stamps are an unnecessary and expensive requirement.
What are the chances of success?
After the last Government’s botched review of alcohol taxation, the most significant changes for over 140 years and the largest rises in alcohol duty in almost 50, it’s fair to say we have never had more support for a WSTA campaign – reflecting the existential nature of the threat to businesses.
Media coverage: We have generated column inches, online coverage and mass support from the wine, spirits and broader hospitality community. Most recently, mainstream media outlets have covered the unusual step taken by a number of wine retailers, who have launched a poster campaign and are contacting their extensive customer bases to warn of further price hikes coming down the line if Ministers fail to maintain the wine easement. We are encouraging and expecting many more independent retailers up and down the country to follow suit – not least because small, high-street businesses will be harder hit if the easement goes.
Budget Submission: The Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, MSN, The Drinks Business, Just Drinks, LBC, Harpers
Wine Easement: The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Mirror, The Standard, The Times, City AM, The Drinks Business, Harpers, Drinks Retailing, Grocery Gazette
Support from MPs: We have built serious momentum in the last month. WSTA members began writing to new MPs in the summer, and since September the same MPs have heard our asks from our members/their constituents. We met scores of MPs at Labour Conference in Liverpool, and on Monday evening we co-hosted an event in Parliament with SME4Labour to inform Labour MPs – and Ministers, including those from Department for Business and Trade and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – and ask them to make our case with their HM Treasury their colleagues.
Discussion with Ministers: While Governments and policy change, one thing remains true: Treasury Ministers give nothing away in advance of Budget Day – and the next Exchequer Secretary James Murray is no exception. But… having met him at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, alongside his Treasury colleague, former Gordon Brown adviser and Shadow Exchequer Secretary, Lord Livermore I met JM last week. He was generous with his precious time and we made (strong) representations.
