Call for Guernsey to freeze alcohol duty

Wednesday, 7 August 2024 11:15

The Guernsey Hospitality Association wants the usual budget increase stopped, as has happened in Jersey.

GHA president Alan Sillett says many bar owners and patrons are struggling:

"Customers are getting squeezed by the cost of living and high interest rates. Operators are getting squeezed by higher utilities and insurance bills. Alcohol duty has been loaded on our industry pretty much every year, for the past ten years."

The GHA has written to deputies, asking that duty is frozen for the 2025 budget, as is being done in Jersey in proposals announced last week.

Alan Sillett says the tax adds up quickly, year on year:

"It's anywhere between 60% and 100%. The States of Jersey has decided that it's going to freeze duty on alcohol to protect the local hospitality industry. We'd like our deputies to do the same. We're a vital sector to the island.

Mr Sillett says weekends in St Peter Port are often busy, but pubs rely on week long, year round business:

"You've got to survive Sunday to Thursday, and Town can be quiet on those nights. Anecdotally, I hear of people who used to go out once a week for a night out, now going out once a fortnight. It has got expensive, and government can help by freezing alcohol duty."

Duty this year stands at just below 6%. The Health Committee has traditionally called for above inflation rises as a way of deterring excess consumption.

The budget in Guernsey is normally published in early October.