Finance (No. 2) Bill Debate

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Department: HM Treasury
Ian Roome Portrait Ian Roome (North Devon) (LD)
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Does the shadow Minister agree that as a result of this policy, lots of local pubs, including lots more in the hospitality industry, will go out of business?

James Wild Portrait James Wild
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That is very clearly the risk.

The British Beer and Pub Association has said that the proposed increases will be damaging to the sector, and we may well see more closures as a result. New clause 26 would shine a light on the real impact that these decisions will have on rural pubs, jobs and businesses. I hope the Minister will consider the new clause and not simply dismiss it by referring to the tax and information impact note, as she did with an earlier group of amendments. That is a prediction of what will happen; it is not a review of what the actuality is.