Bobby Dean
Main Page: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)Department Debates - View all Bobby Dean's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(1 day, 23 hours ago)
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Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for securing the debate. Given all the Liberal Democrat interventions, it seems that we are firmly the party of beer and pubs.
Bobby Dean
My hon. Friends all made their contributions and they are all on the record; there is no disputing that we have won today—one-nil to us.
Pubs are central to communities, as we have heard from others, and Carshalton and Wallington is no different. One of my favourite things about living in the Carshalton area is that we have some great pubs. I tried to list them all on the Floor of the House one time, but I was two short; I will not repeat that mistake here today. People make artwork about our pubs and there is a defined pub crawl that people come to our area to do. People come from all over the region because for six out of the past 12 years one pub, The Hope, has been CAMRA’s Greater London pub of the year. Pubs are super-important to where I live.
In a world with declining physical spaces, pubs are some of the last refuges for interaction with others. We have less footfall on the high street, fewer people going into offices and, let us be honest, it is getting quite pricey to go out for a meal. The pub is one of the last places we have to get together with our mates, or maybe even turn up on our own to be around other people, so it is important that we protect the industry.
The industry is under threat, and hon. Members have spoken about the number of pub closures in recent years. It is getting tough for the hospitality industry in general. People talk to me about a staffing crisis and say that they are struggling to make ends meet. A number of smaller pubs, which used to be at the heart of communities, have been bought up by bigger pub chains, losing their sense of community. That is also an issue. Whenever policy looks as if it is going to have an impact, we should not look at pubs as we do other businesses, but as an important part of the community to protect.
The EPR has had an impact on the cost of selling beer. It has been acknowledged that that was an unintended consequence that needs to be fixed, and campaigners are putting forward suggestions about how we can fix that. They posit that this would be a Treasury winner, although we might hear differently from the Minister. Will the Minister model the figures, so that we can see what the numbers look like and what the net outcome of such a change would be, taking into account the expected increase in sales? If those figures do not show a net income for the Treasury and instead show only a marginal loss, will the Minister consider the wider benefits to the community, as well as the possible multiplier effect? That could boost the industry more generally.
My point is that a policy was introduced with good intentions but is perhaps having unintended consequences, and the centrality of pubs to our communities means that we ought to be addressing all asks by campaigners and making sure that we get this right.