Labour Must Apologise for the 3,500 Pubs They Helped Close

Ministers today called for Labour to apologise for all the community pubs that closed their doors 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.

Southwark lost a net 110 pubs, Liverpool has lost 100 of its pubs and Birmingham 90 pubs.

Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Southwark and Newham lost a third of their pubs since 1997.

Kings Lynn, Lewisham, Salford, Oswestry, Knowsley, Corby and Greenwich saw a quarter of their local pubs close down.

Minister for Local Government, Grant Shapps said:

"We should take no lectures from former Labour Ministers who presided over the closure of 3,500 pubs when they were in government. 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 alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets. Labour must apologise for the harm they did to community pubs across the country.

"The new Coalition Government has scrapped Labour's unfair cider tax, 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. They want a level playing field and less government regulation getting in the way."

The new Government is defending 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 (http://www.atu.org.uk/).
• 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".