The freezing of duty payments for cider could offer “essential relief” for flood-stricken cider apple growers in the West Country.
As part of today’s (19 March) Budget 2014 announcement, chancellor George Osborne said he would help cider producers who were badly affected by the recent weather by freezing the duty on ‘ordinary cider’.
Ordinary cider is classed as anything excluding sparkling cider above 5.5 per cent alcohol volume.
The duty escalator was due to end in 2015. It imposed an automatic annual tax hike of 2 per cent above inflation on alcohol products.
The news comes after North Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin this week called for the ending of the cider duty escalator in the budget.
The motion, put forward by Wiggin, said the increase in duty should be scrapped to provide assistance to the cider industry, which is in “desperate need” of reviving after the recent flooding.
It added that: “Significant fruit tree loss has been reported and more is expected due to the high winds and waterlogged land that the West and South West of the country is still experiencing.”
The motion proposed that removal of the duty escalator would offer “essential relief” for distressed fruit growers and provide them with the confidence to re-plant.
Wiggin said the cider industry has been hammered by excessive rain and flooding this winter, leading to widespread concern about “significant” tree loss at cider orchards in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.
Osborne said there will now be an increase in duty in line with inflation on all alcohol products except beer, Scotch whisky and ‘ordinary cider’.
Beer duty is being cut by 1p per pint as it was last year, while Scotch whisky and cider duty will be frozen.
Osborne said the move is a far more targeted approach than the alcohol duty escalator that is “hated” by many responsible drinkers.
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