The Chancellor has announced delivering his Spring Budget that there will be an extension to alcohol duty freeze until February next year.
Jeremy Hunt said that this will help around 38,000 pubs in the UK and this will be op top of the £13,000 a typical pub will save from the 75% of business rated.
The Chancellor told MPs in the House of Commons, “We value our hospitality industry and are backing the Great British pub.”
The Chancellor has also announced a fuel duty freeze for 12 months and confirmed that there will be a 5p cut.
Hunt said that the 5p cut to fuel duty will save the average motorist around £50 over the next 12 months.
The Chancellor said, “The shadow chancellor complained about the freeze on fuel duty and Labour has opposed it at every opportunity.
“The Labour mayor of London wants to punish motorists even more with his ULEZ plans, but lots of families and sole traders depend on their car.
“If I did nothing, fuel duty would increase by 13% this month.”
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said, “With a general election looming, it would have been a huge surprise for the Chancellor to tamper with the political hot potato that is fuel duty in today’s Budget.
“It appears the decision of if or when duty will be put back up again has been quietly passed to the next government.
“But, while it’s good news that fuel duty has been kept low, it’s unlikely drivers will be breathing a collective sigh of relief as we don’t believe they’ve fully benefited from the cut that was introduced just two years ago due to retailers upping margins to cover their ‘increased costs’.
“This has meant fuel prices have been higher than they would otherwise have been.
“What’s more, despite today’s positive news it’s still the case that drivers are once again enduring rising prices at the pumps, sparked by the oil price going up – the average cost of a litre is already up by more than 4p since the start of the year.”
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