Small Brewers Relief Petition

The Treasury has announced changes to Small Brewers Relief (SBR) – the progressive tax system that has revolutionised UK brewing. These changes will reduce the 50% duty threshold from 5,000hl to 2,100hl: small breweries will have to pay more duty, whilst larger breweries could pay the same or less. Many smaller breweries could be forced out of business.

CAMRA believes that the Small Brewers’ Relief Scheme is vital to a thriving beer market and to ensuring choice for consumers. We have always been concerned about the proposal of removing relief from the smallest brewers and maintain that this should not happen without broad industry consensus – which has not been achieved. We do not believe that the Treasury’s intention to increase the scale of production over which the relief is applied by reducing the lower threshold is the correct way to reform Small Brewers’ Relief.

CAMRA will be joining calls for the Government to publish the evidence of how it arrived at it's preferred approach of lowering the point at which a brewery receives the full relief from 5,000HL to 2,100HL. We ask the Government to change its preferred approach and reinstate the 5,000HL threshold up to which a brewery will continue to receive full relief