Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth

People can afford to go to the pub until the wee hours?

Reducing the duty on pubs would be the best thing after making ligeslation on the “breweries” margins

It depresses me so much that pubs are so expensive now the only ones I can financially justify going to are Wetherspoons.

This is a nothing story.

ALL PUBS can have a 24 hour licence. The two main issues are:

– They have to be permitted by the local council

– They have to actually make money and not deal with violence/problems

Regardless of any schemes from the government, it’s going to be very hard to force local councils to give later licences to pubs if they don’t want to. And a lot of pubs just don’t make money after midnight anyway.

In fact loads of pubs close at 9-10pm on weekdays these days, only opening later Thur-Sat.

Are they putting on later trains and busses too? Because they both end about 11 here. Last I checked last train was 11:10 and last bus was about 10:30 getting me home about midnight. Assuming either run to time or show up.

Deck chairs on the Titanic. Sounds like a nice policy, but means nothing.

So we’re back to reheating the leftovers from New Labour’s final days…

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/blair-defends-new-24-hour-drinking-laws-1.525201

Why not try super casinos next?

Lowering the ridiculous alcohol duty rates we have would go a lot further.

Lower it in pubs and increase it in supermarkets

Fuck me everyone here is so negative. 

This is a good thing.  Yay! 

Yes it would be great if points cost £1 but they don’t.  Subsidising it costs the taxpayer. 

This is a win for customers and the industry, and nimbys and councils run by pensioners who haven’t stayed up past 9pm in years can do one.

I will believe it when spoons bring back the grill

Here’s all the things I can think of that would actually help:

1) Lower energy prices or restrict energy companies from profiteering off the hospitality trade.

2) Provide stronger investment into NVQ and Apprenticeship schemes so pubs can take on and train people appropriately in hospitality.

3) Bring back real neighbourhood policing so that people feel safe going out at night to pubs

4) reduce duties on alcohol for pubs and increase it for supermarkets to combat pre drinking and binge drinking culture. We’ve spent years saying drinking is bad now you want us back.

5) increase investment into late night bus schemes in rural areas to help stop drink driving.

Every time one of these threads comes up I’m constantly reminded that not only do the majority of people not really understand how pubs work, they don’t understand how businesses work.

Lets take a small pub, as a start. Lets say you’re open 12 hours with one person working that entire time. That’s about £145 quid in wages, call it 165 with national insurance and pension. £165 JUST to have someone serving. Sure customers are paying £5 a pint, but lets be really generous and say that the pub makes £1 on that after duty and paying the supplier for the beer. JUST to pay the wages, that’s 175 pints a day JUST to pay the wages of the person working the bar.

It doesn’t cover electric, gas, rent (which is an absurd figure because it’s inflated by the owner of the pub, who is the only person the landlord can buy beer off, at an inflated price), or the landlords wages, who is doing the admin, prep, cleaning, etc.

The only realistic way to make any sort of dent in this at all, is pubs owned by breweries/suppliers need to be operated by them. It should be their responsibility to pay a salary to a landlord, wages etc. Essentially running like a Wetherspoons that also brews their own beer.

Alternatively, you force the owners of the pubs who rent them out to landlords to open the supply chain. You can be a renter of a pub, but the brewery/supplier cannot restrict you, essentially turning it into a freehouse where you can browse the open market. You or I can go to a brewery and buy a barrel of beer cheaper for our house party than a landlord can buy it from the same brewery that owns their pub.

I worked in a pub that was open until 4am some nights during the Edinburgh Fringe. Those last two hours, even if the pub was busy, it didn’t sell much drink. Those who made it until that time were pretty much too drunk to do much more than nurse their drink until they were thrown out. I realise this is just one data point, and from twenty years ago at that, but I don’t think changing opening hours is going to change our drinking culture (throw as much as you can down your neck before chucking out time) very quickly.

Some more work for the NHS I guess. Seriously, this will change fuck all and cause more issues for the police.

Tbh I rarely drink and if I did fancy a night getting sloshed I’d do it home over a pub any day, the pubs near me the bartenders are constantly assessing how drunk you are and will refuse to serve if you make the grave sin of stumbling your words or being merry. Why would anyone want to to treated this way? And to pay for this?

Come on guys drink up we need to increase productivity

filling Tim Martin’s pockets whilst increasing policing and A&E costs is not going to cause ‘growth’

Oooh having a convinient third space at reasonable hours would be nice. Go out, maybe grab a boardgame, have a day of it.

Edit: Oh it’s for later on? Well that’s not going to work out.

This is good progress, now if only they would get rid of the Sunday 4pm trading law

Means nothing without public transport improvements.

Why would anyone bother if the last bus and train is before midnight?

This only punishes people who stay out later because they’ll have to pay a fortune for a taxi.

I’m in my 30s, I’m too tired with life to be going to pubs and staying that late. There is also the money aspect as well, just not worth it getting drunk or whatever.

I don’t need early hours, I’d just like my pub to be open until midnight so I can grab a beer after the cinema. My local closes at 11pm even on a Friday and calls last orders by about 10:30, proper annoying.