19-03-2025
Net zero ‘grocery tax' will drive up pub prices, bosses warn
A net zero 'grocery tax' on food and drink manufacturers will push up prices in the nation's pubs and restaurants, bosses have warned.
Industry chiefs from the hospitality sector have written to Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, pleading with him for an exemption from the incoming Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) levy.
EPR was designed to simplify how Britain recycles as it pushes towards net zero, and will see the burden of paying for recycling shifted from consumers through their council tax bills to the manufacturers themselves.
However, businesses have warned it will encumber them with extra expenses at a time when the cost of doing business is already high.
Jonathan Neame, the chairman of brewer and pub company Shepherd Neame, said: 'It is a tax cost that needs to be passed back to the customer and all the way through the system, so undoubtedly it will drive costs up. It's a very poorly implemented, ill-thought-through piece of legislation.'
The letter to Mr Reed, signed by the chief executives of companies including Ask Pizza owner Azzurri Group, Burger King, Marston's and St Austell Brewery, said: 'Bills from suppliers are now being received, resulting in significant cost increases as a result of EPR.
'Hospitality businesses will be forced to pass at least some of the additional cost of this EPR fee onto their customers, as their suppliers have done to them.'
They argued that bottles of beer, wine and spirits sold in their venues were being incorrectly classified as household waste through the scheme, despite never leaving their premises.
They said: 'Hospitality businesses are being double-charged. They are being passed on an EPR charge, levied on a product incorrectly determined as household waste, and they're also paying for that same product to be disposed of commercially.
'The logic appears to be that a bottle of beer or wine could be served to the customer and end up in the household waste system. This is not the reality for the vast majority of hospitality businesses that collect any packaging served to their customers. This is common sense for any of our customers.'
