Danny Savage & Emily HoltBBC News
BBC
Emma says pubs landlords need to come together to voice their struggles.
Behind the bar at The King’s Head in Pollington, east Yorkshire, Emma Baxter has a problem. She runs the pub in her evenings – but it makes no money.
It is the last remaining pub in the village after another shut down, along with a greengrocer and the post office. She says she can’t take a salary from the business.
“I run the pub for the love of it and for the fact I’m a village girl,” she says.
“I’m a strong believer in the fact that it’s the centre of the community and I said when I bought it I would keep it going.
“But my electricity bill has doubled in the last six months – where is that money going to come from?”
Emma felt so strongly about the tough financial situation facing many pubs that she contacted Your Voice, Your BBC News – an initiative to share the stories that matter to you.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, the number of pubs in the UK has steadily decreased every year since 2000. Some 15,000 pubs have closed in that time, including 289 last year – the equivalent of six a week.
The average price of a pint is set to increase from £4.80 to £5.01. Budget measures mean that pubs face a loss of 9p on each pint if they continue to charge the same pre-budget prices. This means the price of a pint will need to rise by 21p to £5.01 for pubs to maintain current 12p profit.
The industry faced particular struggles during the Covid pandemic, but Emma believes things have deteriorated in the last two years – and it’s left some pubs struggling to stay afloat.
“We saw maybe one price increase a year if we were lucky [during Covid] – sometimes we didn’t even see that,” she says.
“Now we’re seeing three for a year and we’ve got another one coming. That will be the second one in the last two months. So how much more is this going to happen?”
At the same t
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