BEER lovers in Worcestershire are calling for another cut in the tax on their pint to help stabilize the industry following a slight fall in the UK’s overall beer sales for 2015.

According to figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), beer sales across Britain dropped by 1.5 per cent in 2015 – representing a loss of 114 million pints from British pubs, bars and restaurants, as off-trade sales in shops and supermarkets held steady.

As the industry faces the rising costs from the introduction of the National Living Wage and the Apprenticeship Levy as well as increased business rates, the association is urging the Chancellor George Osborne to bring in a fourth successive one penny cut in beer tax as part of the Budget on March 16.

UK beer drinkers already pay some of the highest beer taxes in the UK – twice the European average and a staggering 13 times higher than Germany where the duty if just 4p a pint compared to 52p here.

The BBPA’s comments are echoed by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and spokesman for the Worcester Branch Bill Ottaway said: “CAMRA is trying to get the beer tax cut to help stabilize a still fragile industry. It would help people to afford to go out and have a drink.

“In the second half of last year 27 pubs a week closed but they were not necessarily lost. This compares to 29 closures a week in the previous six months.

“The latest figures show that the work of campaigners across CAMRA, the wider pub and beer industry and the Government is taking effect and arresting the decline in the number of pubs being lost every week.

"However it's a fragile recovery which could very quickly be reversed if the Government fails to build on this positive development and misses the chance to support the British pub and beer industry by reducing tax again.”

He added that local pubs are vital to their communities and, as well as reducing tax, the Government can support pubs by strengthening national planning regulations and supporting local groups seeing to list pubs as Assets of Community Value.

BBPA chief executive, Brigid Simmonds, said: “The figures are certainly not all bad news, as overall, Britain’s beer sales have stabilised over the past three years following years of sharp decline, due to the disastrous tax policy of the beer duty escalator, which saw beer tax rise by 42 per cent from 2008 to 2013.

“Since then, we have seen growing confidence in the sector, but the figures show this is no time for complacency, and any return to tax rises would wipe out this fragile recovery.

“We need another one penny cut in the Budget - to safeguard jobs and much-loved pubs, and to help Britain’s hard pressed beer drinkers.”

• Bill Ottaway also stressed the importance of people supporting and taking an active role in the Worcester CAMRA branch, which organises the Worcester Beer Festival and contributes to the Good Beer Guide. He said without members taking on official roles, branches would fold. “Typically, a lot of branches are run by the older generation, but we need other members to take on those roles. It is not an onerous task to be involved in running a branch – all meetings have to be held in a pub. You are never far away from having a beer.”