Autumn Statement 2016 – beer, wine, spirits and cigarettes how much are they going up by?
THERE was a notable exception in the Autumn Statement speech as there was no mention of booze or fags.
Philip Hammond mentioned nothing about beers, wines, spirits or cigarettes in his maiden speech as Chancellor.
Earlier this year George Osborne froze the duty rates on beer, spirits and most ciders.
The cost of most wines and higher strength sparkling cider went up, by around 4p, in March.
Experts and bigwigs across the beer, spirits and wine industries are hoping that the Chancellor’s speech today would bring them good news of another freeze.
There is also no mention of duties in the Autumn Statement documents, although this could be because the duties for alcohol and cigarettes are usually saved for the formal Budget in the Spring.
The Treasury confirmed to The Sun Online that "traditionally alcohol and cigarette duty rates are fixed once a year, as they were done earlier this year there was no mention in the Autumn Statement".
Philip Hammond did announce today that he is "abolishing the Autumn Statement".
But instead of scraping the autumn announcement he will instead renamed as the official Budget.
The Budget usually appears in Spring and this wili be renamed the Spring Statement.
Key points from the Autumn Statement
Here are the Chancellor's proposed changes
National Living Wage increase
National Living Wage rises by 30p an hour giving £500 more a year to lowest paid Brits
Rip-off rental fees banned
Share prices of estate agents crashed this morning ahead of Philip Hammond's crack-down on fees
£3.5bn housing investment
Government to inject £1.4bn into affordable housing and another £2.3bn into areas of 'high demand'
U-turn on cuts to Universal Credits
Cash back for three million workers as Chancellor reverses cuts to benefits
Fuel duty frozen for another two years
The Chancellor won't implement the planned 2p-per-litre rise
£1.1bn investment into super-fast internet
The money will fund 5G mobile networks and extension of fibre-optic broadband networks
Income tax-free personal allowance to rise
The tax-free personal allowance will rise £1,500 to £12,500
New NS&I savings bond announced
NS&I to launch new savings bond with a rate of 2.2%from Spring next year
Insurance premiums to increase
Insurance premiums to go up after Chancellor announces two per cent hike in tax
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has previously called on the government to protect the beer and pub sector by maintaining the freeze in beer duty.
Colin Valentine, CAMRA National Chairman, said: “pubs and breweries are facing a great deal of uncertainty in these times of economic uncertainty.
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“Pubs in particular are facing significant cost burdens, including business rates, pension auto enrolment and increases to the national living wage.”
The all-party parliamentary Save the Pub group has also called on the Chancellor Philip Hammond to maintain the freeze.
Chair of the group Greg Mulholland said: “The Save the Pub Group has written to the Chancellor, urging him to use his first Autumn Statement to show his backing for British pubs.
“This would show continued support for the pub trade.”
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