Pub landlords: beer pump calorie counts are 'a creeping nanny state on steroids'
They've only just been allowed to open after more than a year of closures and restrictions, but publicans now face another fight over the pumps after it was leaked that the Government is reportedly considering forcing pubs to display calorie information on alcoholic drinks.
While the regulation is being considered for businesses with 250 employees or more, the news has rattled many in the industry, from larger chains to smaller independents, who fear the legislation would eventually creep down.
“For small independent pubs it would be a nightmare,” said Michelle Utz, who runs The Hoop in Stock, Essex. “It means we will have to buy some sort of software, which is time consuming and expensive. The industry is run in tight margins as it is. [It would be] another nail in the coffin for independent pubs and restaurants.”
Many publicans fear they are running out of nails. Indeed, 2,500 pubs were lost in 2020, more than twice the number of previous years. The government itself has estimated such a move would cost £92m, including changing all labels, enforcing compliance and handling legal objections.
Gary Murphy, who runs north London’s Ye Olde Mitre Inne, a 400-year-old pub in Barnet, believes the move would be a sign of “a creeping nanny state on steroids. We have been subjected to extreme interventions comprising senseless restrictions and long closures for over a year now. The timing of what is yet more general nannying regulation is completely inappropriate. What we need now is for the government to withdraw quietly and give us a wide berth to enable us to recover.”
The Government has confirmed that it is set to launch a consultation on mandatory calorie labelling for alcoholic drinks in the UK as part of the Department for Health and Social Care’s Obesity Strategy. However, previous experiments on drinkers being given calorie information have proved inconclusive as to whether it would do anything to turn them off.
Read more: How many calories are in your alcoholic drink?
“I have just asked some of our customers and they said it would not have the remotest impact on the volume they drink,” reports Fiona Hornsby, co-owner of The Bridwell and the Denbigh Castle in Liverpool. “I think there is a definite narrative to over-regulate pubs, and after the year we’ve had and the hoops we have had to jump through just to open it seems both untimely and unfair.”
Pub and beer associations echoed these publicans' concerns. Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, labelled the potential move “outrageous”. She argues that, “our pubs are on their knees and the government already knows this. Calorie labelling would be kicking pubs and brewers when they are down.”
Tom Stainer, chief executive of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), agrees. “Calorific labelling for beers adds in complexity and cost for brewers, which is likely to be passed on to customers. It particularly discriminates against smaller, independent brewers who are least able to organise and afford the testing required for their range of small batch beers.”
Yet not all publicans or brewers contacted by the Telegraph were entirely against the move. Dawn Hopkins of The Rose Inn in Norwich and vice chair of the Campaign for Pubs admitted the move would be “the least of our worries. I don’t think it’s a terrible thing – if you don’t want to know, then don’t look. Obviously, the pub and brewing industries have had a really tough year. I don’t think anything more should be asked of our industry until we are all back to normal trading, whenever that may be.”
Fergus Fitzgerald, head brewer at Adnams, agreed. “We’re broadly in favour,” Fitzgerald told the Telegraph. “The only concern in terms of pubcos putting out [calorie] menus is the expense of doing that. But we’re definitely in favour of customers having the information, as long as it’s staged and managed to give pubs time to do it without too much cost.”
