Campaign objectives

2. Campaign objectives

Covid 19

Since March, SIBA’s efforts have been squarely focused on the current Covid-19 crisis. Our role has been to:

Lobby for Government support for brewers Keep members and non-members updated and informed Take up issues on brewers’ behalf and seek clarification

With the announcement on 20 March 2020 that the Government was closing pubs, bars and restaurants, SIBA successfully lobbied the Home Office and HCLG to allow breweries to remain open to sell beer through takeaways and deliveries.

SIBA’s campaign has been on six key areas:

Suspend beer duty payments in March and April and for the following quarter Extend business rates support to include breweries Relax the licensing laws to allow breweries without an off-licence to sell beer directly to consumers Establish support for starting up production once the restrictions are eased Work closely with other trade bodies BBPA, CAMRA, UKHospitality and the BII on a ‘One Voice’ approach. Work with other players in the supply chain to resolve their issues, too.

Beer Duty

SIBA worked with industry partners to seek the suspension of beer duty payments. This included direct lobbying of the Treasury, joint letters with other organisations and appeals through the press. Despite this the Chancellor decided not to do so. Instead those brewers in financial difficulty have been directed to the Time to Pay helpline. Several members have experienced challenges with Time to Pay and we have been in regular contact with HMRC to resolve these issues. This includes having money taken despite agreeing arrangements with HMRC and the wrong amount been debited. One brewer had ten times the incorrect amount taken two months in a row.

We have been privately advising brewers on the advice of HMRC to simply cancel their direct debits with HMRC. We cannot do this publicly, however as it may constitute incitement to tax avoidance.

Financial measures inc Business Rates

The Government announced a series of financial measures to assist businesses impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. This included exempting retail, leisure and hospitality businesses from business rates and providing a cash grant of £25,000 to those with a rateable value of less than £51,000. Unfortunately, breweries, as primary supply manufacturers, are not included within this definition.

As local authorities have some leeway, we have encouraged breweries to apply and several that have taprooms or shops on site have been successful. We have lobbied the Government to extend the definition to include primary supply manufacturers so that allbreweries can have access to this support. This includes meetings with the Business Team in Number 10, the Small Business Minister and officials at the Business Department and within HM Treasury. We have weekly exchanges with the Small business Minister and are in regular WhatsApp contact with the BEIS secretary of State.

Smaller breweries in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief have received a £10,000 one off grant. There has been a few cases where breweries have not received this because their landlord pays the Business Rates and we have been campaigning for changes to the scheme.

We are working on a ‘blueprint’ with BEIS that will allow local authorities to more easily identify and get money to breweries using the SCAT code system. 4